Changing stroke rehab and research worldwide now.Time is Brain! trillions and trillions of neurons that DIE each day because there are NO effective hyperacute therapies besides tPA(only 12% effective). I have 523 posts on hyperacute therapy, enough for researchers to spend decades proving them out. These are my personal ideas and blog on stroke rehabilitation and stroke research. Do not attempt any of these without checking with your medical provider. Unless you join me in agitating, when you need these therapies they won't be there.

What this blog is for:

My blog is not to help survivors recover, it is to have the 10 million yearly stroke survivors light fires underneath their doctors, stroke hospitals and stroke researchers to get stroke solved. 100% recovery. The stroke medical world is completely failing at that goal, they don't even have it as a goal. Shortly after getting out of the hospital and getting NO information on the process or protocols of stroke rehabilitation and recovery I started searching on the internet and found that no other survivor received useful information. This is an attempt to cover all stroke rehabilitation information that should be readily available to survivors so they can talk with informed knowledge to their medical staff. It lays out what needs to be done to get stroke survivors closer to 100% recovery. It's quite disgusting that this information is not available from every stroke association and doctors group.

Monday, July 17, 2017

Concerns over side effects of statins stopping stroke survivors taking medication

Be careful out there.
https://eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2017-07/uoc-cos071217.php
Negative media coverage of the side effects associated with taking statins, and patients' own experiences of taking the drugs, are among the reasons cited by stroke survivors and their carers for stopping taking potentially life-saving drugs, according to research published today.
Individuals who have had a stroke are at risk of a second stroke, which carries a greater risk of disability and death than first time strokes. In fact, one third of all strokes occur in individuals who have previously had a stroke. To prevent this recurrence, patients are offered secondary preventative medications; however, adherence is a problem with 30% of stroke patients failing to take their medications as prescribed.
To examine the barriers to taking these medications, researchers at the University of Cambridge and Queen Mary University, London (QMUL), analysed posts to TalkStroke, a UK-based online forum hosted by the Stroke Association, across a seven year period (2004-2011). The forum was used by stroke survivors and their carers.
The team, led by Dr Anna De Simoni, a lecturer in Primary Care Research at QMUL and visiting researcher at the Department of Public Health and Primary Care, University of Cambridge, has previously used the forum to explore issues such as the impairment that can make it difficult for stroke survivors to maintain a job.
The findings of the study, which looked at posts by 84 participants, including 49 stroke survivors and 33 caregivers, are published today in the journal BMJ Open. The Stroke Association gave the researchers permission to analyse the results, and to prevent identification of individuals, the team did not use verbatim comments.
Among the reasons cited by the forum users, side effects were a major factor in decisions to stop taking medication. Several contributors had experienced negative side effects and as a result had stopped taking the medication, sometimes in consultation with their GP and other times unilaterally. Others reported that they, or the person they were caring for, had stopped taking the medication after reading negative stories in the press about side effects.
Other users expressed concerns over the medication they were offered. There were conflicting views about the efficacy of the medications - some contributors believed they were very important, while others believed that their risk could be managed by lifestyle changes alone.
Contributors also reported mixed views of healthcare professionals -- some felt confident in their doctor's decision, while others questioned their decisions, some even questioning their motivation for prescribing particular drugs.
"These findings have highlighted the need for an open, honest dialogue between patients and/or their carers, and healthcare professionals," says Dr De Simoni. "Doctors need to listen to these concerns, discuss the benefits and drawbacks of taking the medication, and be willing to support a patient's informed decision to refuse medications."
However, perceptions did not present the only barriers to adherence: there were often practical considerations. Drugs were sometimes too large and difficult to swallow, or a drug regime was too burdensome. The complexities of the drug regimes sometimes meant having to develop routines and strategies to ensure patients kept to them. One survivor described having to pay for the medications by credit card as she was unable to work and had no money or benefits coming in.
"By analysing people's views as expressed in online forums, where they are more open and less guarded, we've seen some valuable insights into why some stroke survivors have difficulty adhering to their medication," says PhD candidate and first author James Jamison from the Department of Public Health and Primary Care at Cambridge.
"Challenging negative beliefs about medication and adopting practices that make routines for taking medication simpler, particularly for those patients who have suffered disability as a result of stroke, should increase adherence and ultimately improve health outcomes."

The research was supported by the National Institute of Health Research, the Stroke Association and the British Heart Foundation.
For more information about statins, visit http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/Cholesterol-lowering-medicines-statins/Pages/Introduction.aspx.
Reference
Jamison, J et al. Barriers and facilitators to adherence to secondary stroke prevention medications after stroke: Analysis of survivors' and caregivers' views from an online stroke forum. BMJ Open; 19 July 2017; DOI: 10.17863/CAM.10458

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