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Review of: Wright JM, Musini VM, Gill R. First-line drugs for hypertension (Review). Cochrane Database Syst Rev 2018;4:10.1002/14651858.CD001841.pub3.
Commentary by: Dr Elizabeth Adeyeye and Dr Teck Khong, Clinical Pharmacology, St George's, University of London, London, UK
Series Editor: Dr Teck Khong, DTB Associate Editor, Clinical Pharmacology, St George's, University of London, London, UK
Key learning points
There is high-quality evidence that morbidity and mortality were reduced with low-dose thiazide diuretics used first line compared with placebo in individuals with hypertension.
First‐line use of ACE inhibitors and calcium channel blockers may be similarly effective but the evidence was less robust.
First-line use of high-dose thiazides or beta-blockers was inferior to first-line low-dose thiazides.
Summary
Low-dose thiazide diuretics are effective in reducing morbidity and mortality associated with moderate-to-severe primary hypertension in adults.1
Overview
Hypertension remains a leading contributor to the burden of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. This Cochrane systemic review has updated the original meta-analysis published in 2009 and the authors have assessed the outcomes associated with the main groups of antihypertensive drugs with the aim of establishing which should be used first-line.1 2 It did not include any new or additional studies and has confirmed the conclusions from the original review. The authors evaluated the evidence on morbidity and mortality when six of the …
Footnotes
Funding This research has received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.
Competing interests None declared. Refer to the online supplementary files to view the ICMJE form(s)
Provenance and peer review Commissioned; internally peer reviewed.