BMJ  2003;327:808 (4 October), doi:10.1136/bmj.327.7418.808

Letter

"Polypill" to fight cardiovascular disease

Old joke has element of truth

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITOR—There has always been an element of truth in the old and slightly cynical description of "Gerifix" and "Gerifix Forte"—the common collection of drugs that many elderly patients find themselves taking in and after hospital. Outside hospitals, in the effort to achieve reductions in premature or avoidable cardiovascular death and disability, many people are actually taking all or most of the components of the "Polypill,"1 and we as doctors have reasonable grounds to believe in a mass benefit from doing so.

Incredulous senior house officers may yet hear of all these things and may also learn that meta-analysis is commonly more reliable than inspecting the results of a single trial, particularly if its power is low.

Wald and Law have produced a good paper.1 There are a lot more bits of wisdom camouflaged as cynicism in the profession, and subjecting these "folk stories" to scientific analysis is at . . . [Full text of this article]

Adrian K Midgley, general practitioner

Exeter EX1 2QS bmj@92tr.freeserve.co.uk


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