Two-thirds of Americans take prescription drugs, and drug spending tops $600 billion per year. But how many patients actually benefit from the drugs they take?

Prescription Poker: Playing the Odds with Medications unpacks this question through a detailed analysis of commonly prescribed heart (and other) medications and their often-low success rates.

Through a deep dive into pharmaceutical-sponsored trials, R.L. Aplin, MD, demonstrates how numerous patients will receive little to no benefit for every one patient who reaps the medication's intended result. This number needed to treat, or NNT, is the "absolute" reduction in risk—and a well-kept secret thanks in part to big pharma's influence in health care. Prescription Poker reveals the likelihood of medication success and brings to life the way doctors and other providers are influenced to write the next "lifesaving" prescription. With that in mind, this book is a consumer-advocate must-read for patients and their families, many of whom struggle to afford their medications, and for those who wonder if the side effects of the drugs they're on are worth enduring.

This book is volume one ("The Heart") in the Number Needed to Treat series.

Richard L. Aplin, MD, FACC, attended medical school at the University of Minnesota from 1980 to 1984. He completed his fellowship and additional year of training in interventional cardiology at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in 1990. He practiced interventional cardiology in Saint Cloud, Minnesota, from 1990 to 2022, and continues to see clinic patients to this day.