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Doctors and the public concord in their acceptance of antihypertensive drug treatment

Journal of Human Hypertension volume 20, pages 901–903 (2006)Cite this article

Little is known on the thresholds of cardiovascular risk and degree of benefit at which subjects would be willing to take regular, lifelong antihypertensive treatment. We asked doctors, the general public and hypertensives to imagine that they were hypertensive and to consider the level of cardiovascular risk at which they would take an antihypertensive to reduce their risk. Acceptance of antihypertensive treatment was similarly distributed amongst doctors and the general public, but patients known to have hypertension generally accepted treatment at lower levels of risk. Guidelines on hypertension suggest targets for blood pressure control and encourage the use of antihypertensive drugs, if these are required, to reach target values.1, 2, 3, 4 However, there has been very little work on the extent of benefit from antihypertensives that individuals would consider acceptable before opting to take regular treatment. There is some evidence that when fully informed of the likely benefit of treatment, many patients may be unwilling to accept cholesterol-lowering treatment.5

To make a fully informed decision on whether or not to take regular, lifelong antihypertensive drugs, an individual patient needs to know the likely benefits and possible adverse effects of treatment. Where possible, the potential benefits of treatment should be communicated in terms of absolute, rather than relative, reduction in cardiovascular risk.6

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Clinical Pharmacology Unit, Centre for Cardiovascular Science, Queen's Medical Research Institute, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK

    J J Oliver, S N Dhayalan, D Graham & S R Maxwell

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  1. J J Oliver
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  2. S N Dhayalan
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  3. D Graham
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  4. S R Maxwell
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Supplementary Information accompanies the paper on the Journal of Human Hypertension website (http://www.nature.com/jhh)

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Oliver, J., Dhayalan, S., Graham, D. et al. Doctors and the public concord in their acceptance of antihypertensive drug treatment. J Hum Hypertens 20, 901–903 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.jhh.1002085

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