How does your doctor decide on your blood pressure treatment?
Choice and blood pressure medication
There are so many blood pressure medications available that it can be hard for blood pressure sufferers to understand why one drug is given to them instead of another.
What follows is often called the "rule of thirds"
Some 18 million people — a third of the UK’s adult population — have a blood pressure higher than their doctors would like. Two thirds of over-65s have a blood pressure high enough for doctors to think that it needs treatment.
When researchers checked people without any symptoms, they found that a third of those with high blood pressure — also known as hypertension — were not aware that they had it.
A third of those in whom high blood pressure has been diagnosed are still not being treated — and even if they are, the treatment is not always adequate. Some therefore remain at increased risk of a stroke, heart attack, heart failure or kidney disease. These patients are not being treated with the best available medication in the right doses.
There are so many blood pressure medications available that it can be hard for blood pressure sufferers to understand why one drug is given to them instead of another.
What follows is often called the "rule of thirds"
Some 18 million people — a third of the UK’s adult population — have a blood pressure higher than their doctors would like. Two thirds of over-65s have a blood pressure high enough for doctors to think that it needs treatment.
When researchers checked people without any symptoms, they found that a third of those with high blood pressure — also known as hypertension — were not aware that they had it.
A third of those in whom high blood pressure has been diagnosed are still not being treated — and even if they are, the treatment is not always adequate. Some therefore remain at increased risk of a stroke, heart attack, heart failure or kidney disease. These patients are not being treated with the best available medication in the right doses.
Dr Thomas Stuttaford has written a good review of blood pressure treatment choices in the UK newspaper: The Times.
Read more here.
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