Beta Blockers Less Effective Against High Blood
Pressure
A Swedish review of research reports beta blocker drugs
are not as effective against high blood pressure as other medications, although
they are better than nothing at all.
According to a report by doctors at Umea University
Hospital in Sweden, data from 13 trials that included more than 105,000 people showed
the incidence of stroke was 16 percent higher and the overall death rate was 3 percent
higher for those who took beta blockers compared to other drugs. Seven other studies
that compared beta blocker treatment of high blood pressure with no drug treatment
at all found a 19 percent lower risk of stroke for those who took beta blockers.
"Switching hypertension treatment from beta blockers
to other low- cost antihypertensive drugs in patients without heart disease should
have a major health effect without increasing the cost," said study author Lars
Hjalmar Lindholm, MD. "Such a change, however, should be carried out slowly and
under a doctor's supervision."
The Swedish report supports "a growing feeling among
the scientific community that beta blockers may be not as good as other drugs,"
said Barry R. Davis, MD, a professor of biostatistics at the University of Texas
School of Public Health. "It adds a lot more strength to the concept that they shouldn't
be used as first-line treatments."
Beta blockers will continue to be used against high
blood pressure, said Daniel Jones, MD, vice chancellor of the University of Mississippi
Medical Center and a spokesman for the American Heart Association. For one thing,
he added, they have advantages for some people, like those with a migraine or those
who experience high blood pressure after a heart attack. And they almost always
are prescribed along with another drug, such as a diuretic, he said.
Drs. Davis and Jones were emphatic on one point someone
who is taking a beta blocker for high blood pressure should not be panicked by the
report. "Keep on taking it, and consult with your doctor," said Dr. Davis. "If it
is the only drug you are taking, the doctor may consider prescribing another one."
High blood pressure and kidney disease are closely related.
Uncontrolled or poorly controlled high blood pressure
is the primary diagnosis for about 25 percent of chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients.
It is second only to diabetes as the leading cause of end- stage renal disease (ESRD).
For more information on high blood pressure, please
visit http://www.americanheart.org/.