Northerner
Admin (Retired)
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
GPs should resist the ?trend towards overtreatment? in patients with mild hypertension and only prescribe antihypertensives for those at blood pressures of 160/100 mmHg or higher, argues former RCGP president Dr Iona Heath.
Dr Heath says that current QOF hypertension targets are unnecessary, at odds with guidelines and are leading to overtreatment.
Writing in a Viewpoint article in JAMA Internal Medicine, Dr Heath says: ?In view of the mounting evidence of both waste and harm, it is well time that we returned to the higher threshold of 160/100 mmHg for the pharmaceutical treatment of hypertension in otherwise healthy people.?
Dr Heath highlights that a Cochrane review published last year found no reductions in mortality or morbidity from treating people with a systolic blood pressure of 140 to 159 mmHg and/or a diastolic blood pressure of 90?99 mmHg with antihypertensive drugs.
http://www.pulsetoday.co.uk/20003013.article#.UZnwrLW2aSo
(free registration)
Blimey! Makes my 124/74 this morning look positively sparkling!
Dr Heath says that current QOF hypertension targets are unnecessary, at odds with guidelines and are leading to overtreatment.
Writing in a Viewpoint article in JAMA Internal Medicine, Dr Heath says: ?In view of the mounting evidence of both waste and harm, it is well time that we returned to the higher threshold of 160/100 mmHg for the pharmaceutical treatment of hypertension in otherwise healthy people.?
Dr Heath highlights that a Cochrane review published last year found no reductions in mortality or morbidity from treating people with a systolic blood pressure of 140 to 159 mmHg and/or a diastolic blood pressure of 90?99 mmHg with antihypertensive drugs.
http://www.pulsetoday.co.uk/20003013.article#.UZnwrLW2aSo
(free registration)
Blimey! Makes my 124/74 this morning look positively sparkling!