Management of hypertension

Presently, many drugs are available for the treatment of patients with high blood pressure. Although there are several theoretical arguments favouring one particular type of drug over the other, prospective clinical trials have failed to show major differences between drug classes in terms of overall prognosis. A possible exception in this regard may be the development of diabetes mellitus which seems to occur less frequently with ACE inhibitors, AT1 receptor blockers and calcium entry blockers than with diuretics. The choice of the antihypertensive drug regimen should take certain patient characteristics into account, notably comorbid conditions. However, despite theoretical considerations concerning initial therapy many patients will end up using two or more medications.