NHS Evidence expert commentary: Benefits of drug therapy are unclear for mild hypertension

Source: NHS Evidence Area: News The January edition of 'Eyes on Evidence', the free monthly e-bulletin from NHS Evidence covering major new published evidence as it emerges with an explanation about what it means for current practice, includes an expert commentary on new data from a Cochrane review that aimed to quantify the effects of antihypertensive drug therapy versus no treatment on mortality and morbidity in adults with mild hypertension and no evidence of cardiovascular disease. It included four RCTs with 8912 participants. The review concluded that, compared with placebo, antihypertensive treatment does not reduce mortality over 4-5 years. There was also no reduction in coronary heart disease, stroke, or total cardiovascular events with antihypertensives. Withdrawals due to adverse effects were increased by around 9% with drug therapy versus placebo (11.3% vs. 2.3%, risk ratio 4.80, 95% CI, 4.14 to 5.57).   According to the expert commentary, research provides no reason to depart from NICE ...
Source: NeLM - Cardiovascular Medicine - Category: Cardiology Source Type: news