Dealing with being prescribed cardiovascular preventive medication: a narrative analysis of qualitative interviews with patients with recent acute coronary heart disease in Sweden

OBJECTIVE: To explore how patients with experience of acute coronary heart disease make sense of, and deal with, the fact of being prescribed cardiovascular preventive medication. DESIGN: Qualitative interview study. SETTING: Swedish primary care. PARTICIPANTS: Twenty-one participants with experience of being prescribed cardiovascular preventive medication, recruited from a randomised controlled study of problem-based learning for self-care for coronary heart disease. METHODS: The participants were interviewed individually 6–12 months after their hospitalisation for acute coronary disease. A narrative analysis was conducted of their accounts of being prescribed cardiovascular preventive medication. RESULTS: Four themes shape the patients’ experiences: ‘A matter of living’ concerns an awareness of the will to live linked to being prescribed cardiovascular preventive medication regarded in the light of the recent hospitalisation. In ‘Reconciliation of conflicting self-images’, patients dealt with being prescribed preventive medication through work to restore an identity of someone responsible in spite of viewing the taking of medication as questionable. The status of feeling healthy, while being someone in need of medication, also constituted conflicting self-images. Following this, taking medication was framed as necessary, not as an active choice. ‘Being in the hands of expertise’ is about the seeking of an answer from a reliable prescriber to the question: ‘Is this medication really necessary for me?’ Existential labour was done to establish that the practice of taking cardiovascular preventive medication was an inevitable necessity, rather than an active choice. ‘Taking medicines no longer a big deal’ could be the resulting experience of this process. CONCLUSIONS: Unmet existential needs when being prescribed cardiovascular preventive medication seem to be a component of the burden of treatment. A continuous and trustful relationship with the prescribing doctor may facilitate the reconciliation of conflicting self-images, and support patients in their efforts to incorporate their medicines taking into daily life.