ESC: Heart patients who take illegal drugs nine times more likely to die or experience life-threatening emergencies

Patients with acute cardiovascular conditions who take illegal drugs are nearly nine times more likely to die or experience life-threatening emergencies while in hospital compared to non-users, according to new research. The study, presented at the ESC Congress 2022 found that multiple drug users had an 11-fold risk of a poor in-hospital prognosis compared with those taking one drug. Illicit drug use globally has risen 22% in the past decade With illicit drug use up by 22% globally in the past decade, the researchers set out to discover the prevalence of drug use in intensive cardiac care unit (ICCU) patients