Drugs Don't Work If You Don't Take Them? DUH!
High blood pressure patients who don't take their medications are at major risk of medical complications, according to a new report in the journal Circulation.
Sure, drug therapy can be exensive and have bothersome side effects. Medical skeptics invoke Big Pharma conspiracy theories to impugn physician motives for prescribing. But there's little doubt that blood pressure drugs are effective in reducing rates of cardiovascular events such as heart attacks, strokes, and cardiac deaths.
Italian primary care physicians followed almost 19,000 newly diagnosed high blood pressure patients over the course of five years. Average age was 62 and they were free of heart disease and strokes at baseline. One or more drugs for daily use were prescribed. Adherence to the medication regimen was noted as either high (taking the drugs at least eight of every 10 days), intermediate (taking drugs four to eight of every 10 days), or low (taking drugs less than four of every 10 days).
Guess how many patients were in the low adherence group . . . . . . . . . . half of them! Compliance may not be much different in the U.S.
Compared with the low adherence group, the high adherence group had 38% fewer cardiovascular events such as heart attacks, chest pain, strokes, and heart-related deaths.
The lesson is clear: If you have high blood pressure and want to reduce the associated medical risks, take your drugs.
-Steve Parker, M.D.
References:
Mazzaglia, G., et al. Adherence to antihypertensive medications and cardiovascular morbidity among newly diagnosed hypertensive patients. Circulation, 120 (2009): 1598-1605. Published online ahead of print October 5, 2009
Lowry, Fran. High adherence to antihypertensive therapy lowers cardiovascular risk. TheHeart.org, October 9, 2009.
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Posted by: CC Rimac | Oct 20, 2009 8:58:57 PM
Yikes! That is a frigntening statistic.
But, this blog brings to mind my own situation with hypertension... one perhaps that you could address in a future blog so other people are aware of this situation.
For 5 years I took hypertensive meds... TOOK as in past tense. I suffered so many ill side effects that I wanted off of them. I started monitoring my blood pressure at my local pharmacy (whenever I was in there or close by) and I always had normal blood pressure (in the range of 120/70, varying 5 points both ways). BUT, in my doctors office I always had blood pressure in the 150/95 range (thus the meds were prescribed to me).
Finally, last year I bought my own blood pressure monitor (a high end unit costing $250) and stopped taking the hypertensive meds. I monitored myself throughout the day for many months (usually taking at least 10 readings from morning till night).
The result? I do not have high blood pressure after all. My b.p. varies between 115/65 to 125/75. What I have is "White Coat Syndrome" and I understand now that this is a common problem. I have seen some stat's that suggest that as many as 25% of hypertensives are in this category.
