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Beta-receptor blockers in primary prevention for cardiovascular disease: forgotten benefits?

Journal of Human Hypertension volume 20, pages 719–721 (2006)Cite this article

Beta-receptor blockers have been around for more than 35 years in cardiovascular medicine,1 and used for a variety of conditions including treatment of hypertension,2, 3 congestive heart failure,4, 5 migraine,6, 7, 8 heart palpitations and other cardiac arrhythmias,9, 10, 11 and as secondary prevention12, 13, 14 following myocardial infarction. Recently, two sets of meta-analyses published in the Lancet15, 16 have cast doubts on the usefulness of beta-receptor blockers for use in essential hypertension. These doubts were first raised for atenolol,15 but then expanded to include also other beta-receptor blockers based on meta-analyses of 13 trials.16

Even if it is fully appropriate that from time to time to make critical analyses of established dogmas and therapies in medicine, we feel that not all arguments have been voiced in defence of beta-receptor blocker therapy for essential hypertension. In order to make the current debate on the role of beta-receptor blockers more multidimensional, we wanted to scrutinize the arguments against the beta-receptor blockers and to put forward some arguments in defence of this therapy.

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  1. Department of Clinical Sciences Medicine, University Hospital, Malmö, Sweden

    P M Nilsson & G Berglund

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  1. P M Nilsson
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  2. G Berglund
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Correspondence to P M Nilsson.

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Nilsson, P., Berglund, G. Beta-receptor blockers in primary prevention for cardiovascular disease: forgotten benefits?. J Hum Hypertens 20, 719–721 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.jhh.1002042

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