Heart attack patients are needlessly taking beta blockers and the drug could even raise the risk of death, landmark research has suggested. 

The daily tablets, which can trigger fatigue, nausea and even sexual dysfunction, are offered to the majority of patients who suffer a heart attack.

Around 60,000 people are prescribed beta blockers every year in the UK and many will remain on the pills for life.

But a Spanish trial, involving more than 8,000 adults, has found the medication was ineffective and did not help reduce the risk of death or further heart attacks.

Women treated with beta blockers even had a higher risk of death, heart attacks, or hospitalisation for heart failure compared to women not receiving the drug.

Experts said the research must change the way heart attack patients are now treated around the world, freeing hundreds of thousands from uncomfortable side effects.

Dr. Valentin Fuster, general director of the National Centre for Cardiovascular Research in Madrid, said: 'These findings will reshape all international clinical guidelines on the use of beta blockers in men and women and should spark a long-needed, sex-specific approach to treatment for cardiovascular disease.

'We found no benefit in using beta blockers for men or women with preserved heart function after [having a] heart attack despite this being the standard of care for some 40 years.'

In the study, researchers tracked 8,505 patients across 109 hospitals whose heart function was above 40 per cent.

They were randomly assigned to either take a beta blocker or not to take a beta blocker, within two weeks of leaving the hospital. 

All patients otherwise received the current standard of care.

Over roughly four years, the scientists found there was no significant difference when it came to rates of death from any cause, repeat heart attacks or hospitalisation for heart failure between the two groups.

However, when assessing women's results specifically, they found women who were treated with beta blockers were significantly more likely to have another heart attack or be hospitalised for heart failure.

They also had a 2.7 per cent higher risk of death compared to those not treated with beta blockers. 

The findings were published in the European Heart Journal and presented at the European Society of Cardiology Congress in Madrid.

Dr. Borja Ibáñez, scientific director for Madrid's National Centre for Cardiovascular Research and the co-author of the study, said: 'After a heart attack, patients are typically prescribed multiple medications, which can make adherence difficult.

'Beta blockers were added to standard treatment early on because they significantly reduced mortality at the time. 

'Their benefits were linked to reduced cardiac oxygen demand and arrhythmia prevention. But therapies have evolved. 

'Today, occluded coronary arteries are reopened rapidly and systematically, drastically lowering the risk of serious complications such as arrhythmia. 

'In this new context—where the extent of heart damage is smaller—the need for beta blockers is unclear. 

'While we often test new drugs, it's much less common to rigorously question the continued need for older treatments.' 

Experts have long raised concern over the effectiveness of beta blockers, arguing they have 'little impact' now.

Earlier this year, Professor Peter Sever, an expert in clinical pharmacology and therapeutics at Imperial College London, also told the Daily Mail: 'Beta blockers were the number one drug choice for high blood pressure in 1995, but we've moved on.

'Trials have shown they are much less effective at preventing strokes and heart attacks than [newer drugs called] ACE inhibitors, for example. 

'They have very little role in hypertension management now, except as a third or fourth medication.' 

It comes as alarming data last year also revealed that premature deaths from cardiovascular problems, such as heart attacks and strokes, had hit their highest level in more than a decade. 

The Daily Mail has previously highlighted how the number of young people under 40 in England being treated for heart attacks by the NHS is on the rise. 

Cases of heart attacks, heart failure and strokes among the under-75s had tumbled since the 1960s thanks to plummeting smoking rates, advanced surgical techniques and breakthroughs such as stents and statins.

But now, other factors such as slow ambulance response times for category 2 calls in England — which includes suspected heart attacks and strokes — as well as long waits for tests and treatment have also been blamed for the worrying reversal in progress.