Beta-blockers appear to be no more effective and probably equally as safe .
It is unusual for women to change drugs due to side effects .
REVIEW ER 'S CONCLUSIONS Improvement in control of maternal blood pressure with use of beta-blockers would be worthwhile only if it were reflected in substantive benefits for mother and /or baby , and none have been clearly demonstrated .
Large r and omised trials are needed to determine whether antihypertensive therapy in general ( rather than beta-blocker therapy specifically ) results in greater benefit than risk , for treatment of mild-moderate pregnancy hypertension .
BACKGROUND Antihypertensives , such as beta-blockers , are used for pregnancy hypertension in the belief these will improve outcome for mother and baby .
OBJECTIVES To assess whether oral beta-blockers are better than placebo , or no beta-blocker , and have advantages over other antihypertensives , for women with mild to moderate pregnancy hypertension .
Beta-adrenergic blocking agents in the treatment of pregnancy-induced hypertension.
Fifty-one women with pregnancy-induced hypertension ( PIH ) were r and omly allocated to one of three treatment groups : A : hydralazine ( 13 ) ; B : hydralazine and propranolol ( 17 ) ; and C : hydralazine and pindolol ( 19 ) . All women fulfilled the pretreatment criteria and were of similar age , numbers of previous pregnancies and had systolic blood pressure ( SBP ) of between 140 and 160 mmHg and diastolic blood pressure ( DBP ) of between 95 and 110 mmHg .  Hypertension was treated equally well by all three regimens ( mean SBP was 133.6 , 130 and 134 mmHg , respectively ) . Heart rate was significantly higher than baseline in group A and lower in groups B and C , as is to be expected with beta-blocker treatment . Side-effects were more frequent in group A than in groups B and C , 62 % of the patients on hydralazine monotherapy complained of palpitations compared to 35 % on combination treatment . Fetal outcome differed in the various groups . Birth weight was significantly lower in group B , where regimen included propranolol , compared to that of group C , for whom the regimen included pindolol ( 3,044.7 + /- 443.8 and 2,709.6 + /- 485.5 gm , p < 0.05 ) . Mean blood glucose of the newborns were similar in groups A and C ( 76.5 + /- 16.5 and 78.6 + /- 15 gm% ) and significantly lower in group B ( 62.6 + /- 14 gm% , p < 0.02 ) . In conclusion , blood pressure was equally well treated in all three treatment groups . However , more maternal side-effects occurred in group A , the group treated with hydralazine monotherapy , while propranolol in combination with hydrazaline ( group B ) had some negative effects on fetal development which did not occur in pindolol/hydrazaline combination
Beta-blockers appear to be no more effective and probably equally as safe .
It is unusual for women to change drugs due to side effects .
REVIEW ER 'S CONCLUSIONS Improvement in control of maternal blood pressure with use of beta-blockers would be worthwhile only if it were reflected in substantive benefits for mother and /or baby , and none have been clearly demonstrated .
Large r and omised trials are needed to determine whether antihypertensive therapy in general ( rather than beta-blocker therapy specifically ) results in greater benefit than risk , for treatment of mild-moderate pregnancy hypertension .
BACKGROUND Antihypertensives , such as beta-blockers , are used for pregnancy hypertension in the belief these will improve outcome for mother and baby .
OBJECTIVES To assess whether oral beta-blockers are better than placebo , or no beta-blocker , and have advantages over other antihypertensives , for women with mild to moderate pregnancy hypertension .