Are current therapies for hypertension achieving their goal?

• Main Author: Neil Poulter
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Hindawi - SAGE Publishing 2006-06-01
• Series: Journal of the Renin-Angiotensin-Aldosterone System
• Online Access: http://jra.sagepub.com/content/7/2_suppl/3.full.pdf

The majority of adults with hypertension do not get their blood pressures controlled to currently recommended targets, despite relatively consistent blood pressure targets in guidelines from around the world. This requires major preventative and treatment strategies to be implemented both in the general population and in the hypertensive population. The reasons behind the failure to achieve blood pressure targets are many and varied and include physician inertia, ineffective drugs, poor patient compliance, side-effects and poor communication of guidelines. Physician inertia is perhaps the most important contributor to under-treatment. The recent A/CD algorithm in guidelines co-produced by the British Hypertension Society and the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence in the UK and Ireland provide a memorable, pragmatic and logical approach to guide drug sequencing with a view to achieving blood pressure targets for most patients.