Heart medication reduces the risk of violent crime

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Published 1 February 2023 at 14.12

Domestic. Beta blockers, commonly used to treat heart disease and high blood pressure, may be linked to a reduced risk of committing violent crimes. This is shown by a new registry study published in the journal PLOS Medicine.

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Beta blockers lower blood pressure by blocking the effect of hormones such as adrenaline. The medication is used to treat several different conditions including high blood pressure, cardiovascular events, heart failure and anxiety. It has also been suggested to work for clinical depression and aggression, but some studies have found a link with increased suicidality and the results are conflicting.

In the current study, the researchers investigated the relationship between beta blockers and hospitalization for mental illness, suicidality , suicides and reports of violent crimes. They studied 1.4 million individuals in Sweden and compared periods with and without beta blockers in the same individual over an eight-year period (2006-2013). In this way, the researchers were able to control for factors that could influence the relationship, such as genetics or medical history.

Periods of medication were associated with a 13 percent lower risk of being charged with violent crime. However, since it is an observational study, conclusions about causation should be interpreted with caution, according to the researchers.

– If the results are confirmed in other studies, including randomized controlled trials, beta-blockers may be considered as a way to manage aggression in individuals with psychiatric diagnoses, says Yasmina Molero, researcher at the department of clinical neuroscience and the department of medical epidemiology and biostatistics at Karolinska Institutet.