Antihypertensive Therapy and the Risk of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus

Although thiazide diuretics and beta-blockers are often used as first-line therapy in patients with hypertension, including those with diabetes mellitus,1 the possibility that these drugs may promote glucose intolerance remains a concern.210 Short-term metabolic studies, as well as epidemiologic studies and clinical trials, suggested a causal link between the use of thiazide diuretics and the subsequent development of type 2 diabetes.310 However, those studies were compromised by small numbers of patients, relatively short follow-up periods, changing definitions of new-onset diabetes, lack of adequate comparison groups, selection criteria that lessened the extent to which the results could be generalized, . . .