High burden of drug therapy in adult congenital heart disease: polypharmacy as marker of morbidity and mortality

With the aim to assess medication use in adult congenital heart disease (ACHD) patients compared with the age- and sex-matched general population, Dr Woudstra and co-workers from the Netherlands, used data of 14 138 ACHD patients from a registry. Both cardiovascular and non-cardiovascular medication were high in ACHD patients, with twice as much polypharmacy compared with the matched general population. Cox regression revealed a strong association between polypharmacy and mortality corrected for age, sex, and defect severity. Similar observations have previously been reported in other populations.(1)