Treatment of High Blood Pressure | Hypertension (1)

What are the Basic Drugs for treating High Blood Pressure ?

Goals of treatment

You should always Keep in mind that high blood pressure is usually present for many years before its complications develop. The idea, therefore, is to treat hypertension early, before it damages important organs in the body. Accordingly, increased public awareness and screening programs to detect early, uncomplicated hypertension are the keys to successful treatment of high blood pressure. By treating high blood pressure successfully early enough, you can significantly decrease the risk of stroke, heart attack, and kidney failure.

The goal for patients with combined systolic and diastolic hypertension is to attain a blood pressure of 140/85 mm Hg. Bringing the blood pressure down even lower, as mentioned earlier, may be desirable in African American patients, and patients with diabetes or chronic kidney disease. Although life style changes in pre-hypertensive patients is appropriate, it is not well established that treatment with medication of patients with pre-hypertension is beneficial.

Points to consider while Starting treatment for high blood pressure

Blood pressure that is persistently higher than 140/ 90 mm Hg usually is treated with lifestyle modifications and medication. If the diastolic pressure remains at a borderline level (usually under 90 mm Hg, yet persistently above 85), however, more aggressive treatment also may be started in certain circumstances. These circumstances include borderline diastolic pressures in association with end-organ damage, systolic hypertension, or factors that increase the risk of cardiovascular disease, such as age over 65 years, African American decent, smoking, hyperlipemia (elevated blood fats), or diabetes.

Any one of the several classes of medications may be started, except the alpha-blocker medications. The alpha-blockers drugs are used only in combination with another anti-hypertensive medication in specific medical situations.

In some particular situations, certain classes of anti-hypertensive drugs are preferable to others as the first line (choice) drugs. For example, Angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors or angiotensin receptor blocking (ARB) drugs are the drugs of choice in patients with heart failure, chronic kidney failure (in diabetics or non-diabetics), or heart attack (myocardial infarction) that weakens the heart muscle (systolic dysfunction), as these have remodeling effect on heart muscles. Also, beta-blockers are sometimes the preferred treatment in hypertensive patients with a resting tachycardia (racing heart beat when resting) or an acute (rapid onset, current) heart attack.
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