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 .
Morbidity and mortality in the Swedish Trial in Old Patients with Hypertension (STOP-Hypertension)
Although the benefits of antihypertensive treatment in " young " elderly ( under 70 years ) hypertensive patients are well established , the value of treatment in older patients ( 70 - 84 years ) is less clear . The Swedish Trial in Old Patients with Hypertension ( STOP-Hypertension ) was a prospect i ve , r and omised , double-blind , intervention study set up to compare the effects of active antihypertensive therapy ( three beta-blockers and one diuretic ) and placebo on the frequency of fatal and non-fatal stroke and myocardial infa rct ion and other cardiovascular death in hypertensive Swedish men and women aged 70 - 84 years . We recruited 1627 patients at 116 health centres throughout Sweden , who were willing to participate , and who met the entry criteria of three separate recordings during a 1-month placebo run-in period of systolic blood pressure between 180 and 230 mm Hg with a diastolic pressure of at least 90 mm Hg , or a diastolic pressure between 105 and 120 mm Hg irrespective of the systolic pressure . The total duration of the study was 65 months and the average time in the study was 25 months . 812 patients were r and omly allocated active treatment and 815 placebo . The mean difference in supine blood pressure between the active treatment and placebo groups at the last follow-up before an endpoint , death , or study termination was 19.5/8.1 mm Hg . Compared with placebo , active treatment significantly reduced the number of primary endpoints ( 94 vs 58 ; p = 0.0031 ) and stroke morbidity and mortality ( 53 vs 29 ; p = 0.0081 ) . Although we did not set out to study an effect on total mortality , we also noted a significantly reduced number of deaths in the active treatment group ( 63 vs 36 ; p = 0.0079 ) . The benefits of treatment were discernible up to age 84 years . We conclude that antihypertensive treatment in hypertensive men and women aged 70 - 84 confers highly significant and clinical ly relevant reductions in cardiovascular morbidity and mortality as well as in total mortality
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 .