Hypertension: NICE orders review as research questions widespread practice
Tens of thousands of people suffering from high blood pressure may have been given the wrong treatment, a new study has found.
A team of Swedish scientists have found that beta blockers, the most common drug used in the treatment of hypertension, is not very effective in treating the condition.
The study of 13 trials involving 105,000 people compared the result of treatment with beta blockers with that of other hypertensive drugs and discovered that the relative risk of stroke was 16% higher for users of beta blockers than for users of other drugs.
The study also included comparisons between the effect of beta blockers with that of a placebo or no treatment. This part of the trial found the relative risk of stroke was reduced by 19% by the use of all beta blockers. However, other treatments, such as diuretics, ACE inhibitors and calcium channel blockers, reduced the risk by 38%.
"In comparison with other anti-hypertensive drugs, the effect of beta blockers is less than optimum, with a raised risk of stroke. Therefore, we believe that beta blockers should not remain first choice in the treatment of primary hypertension and should not be used as reference drugs in future controlled trials of hypertension," states the Scandinavian report.
The findings have led the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE), the government's medicines watchdog, to revise its clinical guidelines on the management of hypertension in adults in primary care. The move came only 15 months after the guidelines were first issued.
NICE has asked the National Collaborating Centre for Chronic Conditions to work with the British Hypertension Society (BHS) to begin the review immediately so that it can provide GPs with clear guidance as soon as possible.
Commenting on the findings, Professor Bryan Williams, chairman of the BHS's NHS Guideline Development Group, said: "This is a significant development in terms of ensuring that the many thousands of people with hypertension in England and Wales will be able to access treatments that are based on the most up-to-date clinical evidence."
Around two million people in Britain suffer from high blood pressure.
