Antihypertensive drugs used to treat predominantly healthy adults aged 18 to 59 years with mild to moderate primary hypertension have a small absolute effect to reduce cardiovascular mortality and morbidity primarily due to reduction in cerebrovascular mortality and morbidity .
All-cause mortality and coronary heart disease were not reduced .
There is lack of good evidence on withdrawal due to adverse events .
BACKGROUND Hypertension is an important risk factor for adverse cardiovascular events including stroke , myocardial infa rct ion , heart failure and renal failure .
The main goal of treatment is to reduce these events .
Systematic review s have shown proven benefit of antihypertensive drug therapy in reducing cardiovascular morbidity and mortality but most of the evidence is in people 60 years of age and older .
We wanted to know what the effects of therapy are in people 18 to 59 years of age .
OBJECTIVES To quantify antihypertensive drug effects on all-cause mortality in adults aged 18 to 59 years with mild to moderate primary hypertension .
To quantify effects on cardiovascular mortality plus morbidity ( including cerebrovascular and coronary heart disease mortality plus morbidity ) , withdrawal due adverse events and estimate magnitude of systolic blood pressure ( SBP ) and diastolic blood pressure ( DBP ) lowering at one year .
Medical Research Council's Treatment Trial for mild hypertension: an interim report.
The pilot phase of the British multicentre r and omized controlled trial of treatment for mild hypertension has shown : ( 1 ) that unselected subjects , aged 35 - 64 years , with mild hypertension are willing to enter and remain in a long-term trial even though asymptomatic ; ( 2 ) that the differences of mean systolic and mean diastolic pressure achieved between treated and control subjects is sufficient to produce the expected difference in terminating events with the 18000 patients calculated as needed for the full-scale trial ; ( 3 ) that side effects with the two selected active primary regimens ( bendrofluazide and propranolol ) are common but mild ( no serious side effects or toxic reactions have been reported ) ; ( 4 ) that the work load imposed by the trial , though considerable during screening and the initiation of patients into the trial , can largely be taken by specially trained nursing staff , and when screening is completed the trial does not impose a heavy burden of follow-up examinations ; ( 5 ) that there are no adverse psychological effects caused by alerting asymptomatic people to their raised pressure and enrolling them into a prolonged programme of clinical attendance ; ( 6 ) that the total costs of carrying out a full-scale trial -- estimated at about lb.2 m ( $ U.S. 4m)--are commensurate with the potential annual savings in health service expenditure whether the trial shows treatment to be effective or unwarranted
Antihypertensive drugs used to treat predominantly healthy adults aged 18 to 59 years with mild to moderate primary hypertension have a small absolute effect to reduce cardiovascular mortality and morbidity primarily due to reduction in cerebrovascular mortality and morbidity .
All-cause mortality and coronary heart disease were not reduced .
There is lack of good evidence on withdrawal due to adverse events .
BACKGROUND Hypertension is an important risk factor for adverse cardiovascular events including stroke , myocardial infa rct ion , heart failure and renal failure .
The main goal of treatment is to reduce these events .
Systematic review s have shown proven benefit of antihypertensive drug therapy in reducing cardiovascular morbidity and mortality but most of the evidence is in people 60 years of age and older .
We wanted to know what the effects of therapy are in people 18 to 59 years of age .
OBJECTIVES To quantify antihypertensive drug effects on all-cause mortality in adults aged 18 to 59 years with mild to moderate primary hypertension .
To quantify effects on cardiovascular mortality plus morbidity ( including cerebrovascular and coronary heart disease mortality plus morbidity ) , withdrawal due adverse events and estimate magnitude of systolic blood pressure ( SBP ) and diastolic blood pressure ( DBP ) lowering at one year .