Heart Arrhythmia Medications

The heartbeats are kept in coordination with the help of electric pulses. And when these very pulses do not work as they are supposed to, they cause arrhythmia or irregular heartbeat. Primarily, there are two types of arrhythmia; tachycardia and bradycardia. It is known as tachycardia, when the resting heart rate is greater than 100 bpm (beats per minute). And it is bradycardia, when the resting heart rate falls below 60 bpm. Know that, these two forms do not indicate any heart disease. For instance, it is normal to experience tachycardia, while exercising. The condition of heart or cardiac arrhythmia is often harmless. However, if it starts occurring frequently, or its symptoms become far from being tolerable, then situation might become ugly.

Symptoms

The most noticeable symptom of heart arrhythmia is the heart beating too fast, or too slow. Most people have a sensation in their chest, which they describe as a fluttering feeling. Chest pain, which may be accompanied or worsened by breathing difficulty, and dizziness are some other arrhythmia symptoms, that may be observed. Dizzy spells, or fainting can also be experienced.

Causes

Many factors may cause cardiac arrhythmia. For instance, in a heart attack, the blood supply to the heart gets interrupted. And this action damages a part of the heart muscle, giving rise to what we are discussing here. Other causes, apart from these, include coronary artery disease, and changes in the heart muscle (one common cause is cardiomyopathy). And even the healing period post any heart surgery, may also trigger the development of this problem of slow, rapid or irregular heartbeat.

Then comes diabetes, high blood pressure, too much alcohol, smoking, stress, and electric shock, as a few other causes. Herbal treatment methods may also be an offender, and so can hyperthyroidism in causing heart arrhythmia in children.

Medication

Treatment options are many, when it comes to deal with the symptoms of heart arrhythmia. And one of the options is the use of medications.

Antiarrhythmic drugs
These medications are good enough to reduce symptoms of tachycardia. The standard list of prescribed drugs under this class are as follows:

• Amiodarone (Cordarone, Pacerone)
• Bepridil Hydrochloride (Vascor)
• Disopyramide (Norpace)
• Dofetilide (Tikosyn)
• Dronedarone (Multaq)
• Flecainide (Tambocor)
• Ibutilide (Corvert)
• Lidocaine (Xylocaine)
• Procainamide (Procan, Procanbid)
• Propafenone (Rythmol)
• Propranolol (Inderal)
• Quinidine (many trade names)
• Sotalol (Betapace)
• Tocainide (Tonocarid)

Calcium channel blockers
These medications help in decreasing the magnitude with which the heart pumps thus, relaxing the blood vessels and slowing down the heart rate. Commonly prescribed calcium channel blockers to manage heart arrhythmia include:

• Amlodipine (Norvasc)
• Diltiazem (Cardizem LA, Tiazac)
• Felodipine
• Isradipine (DynaCirc CR)
• Nicardipine (Cardene SR)
• Nifedipine (Procardia, Procardia XL, Adalat CC)
• Nisoldipine (Sular)
• Verapamil (Calan, Verelan, Covera-HS)

Beta blockers
These drugs block the effects of adrenalines thus, reducing cardiac output and hypertension. This allows them to be used in the treatment of heart arrhythmia. Beta blockers that are commonly prescribed include:

• Acebutolol (Sectral)
• Atenolol (Tenormin)
• Bisoprolol (Zebeta)
• Metoprolol
• Nadolol (Corgard)
• Nebivolol (Bystolic)
• Propranolol (Inderal LA)

Anticoagulants
These are known as blood thinning medications. Meaning, they prevent blood from clotting or coagulating. Now most types of heart attacks have blood clots as one of their main reasons. So use of these medications are therefore important to prevent complications of heart arrhythmia.

• Warfarin
• Aspirin

In most cases, people do not require all such drugs. It is only when the heart arrhythmia becomes too severe that doctors prescribe their usage. Take care!