Colchicine for Heart Attacks

Treatment with low-dose colchicine has been proposed for

secondary cardiovascular prevention in patients with high

cardiovascular risk. A Cochrane review investigated the

benefits of colchicine therapy in patients with stable cardi-

ovascular disease, previous myocardial infarction, or stroke.

Twelve randomized placebo-controlled studies with a total

of 22,983 participants aged between 57 and 74 years were

evaluated. The patients, most of whom were male (79%),

received colchicine 0.5 mg once or twice daily for 6–80

months, depending on the study, in addition to standard

therapy.

The analysis showed that low-dose colchicine treatment

reduces the risk of myocardial infarction by 26% and the

risk of stroke by 33% with high certainty. In contrast, colchi-

cine therapy had little to no effect on overall mortality, car-

diovascular mortality, and coronary revascularization. The

rate of serious adverse events was not increased under

colchicine treatment. However, gastrointestinal adverse

events occurred more frequently during treatment with col-

chicine. The authors conclude that further studies are need-

ed to investigate the benefits and risks of low-dose colchi-

cine in relevant subgroups and for specific indications, for

example, long-term use in patients with stable coronary

heart disease compared to short-term use after acute cor-

onary syndrome. 

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Source: Ebrahimi F et al.: Colchicine for the secondary prevention of cardiovascular events. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2025;11(11):CD014808. Published 13 November 2025. doi:10.1002/14651858.CD014808.pub

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