Key result
Historical review suggests understanding BP control and vascular disease links will drive future hypertension therapies.
Why the study?
Despite over 40 years of antihypertensive drug therapy experience, there remains a need for more specific treatments and better understanding of blood pressure control and vascular disease relationships.
A historical overview and future perspective on the evolution of antihypertensive therapies.
Historical review of hypertension therapies leaves open optimal future targets; underscores need for mechanistic studies before clinical translation.
THE TREATMENT of hypertension has come a long way since the early days of ganglionblocking drugs, reserpine, hydralazine, and diuretics. After more than 40 years of experience with antihypertensive drug therapy and a shorter experience with broadly recommended nonpharmacological modalities, we have learned much about efficacy, but the search goes on for more specific treatments and a better understanding of the relationships between blood pressure control and hypertension-related vascular diseases. That better understanding will determine in large measure what the future holds for improved therapies. Predicting the future is always hazardous. Take for example what we now know about the reninangiotensin system, because when that system was discovered, there was no way to foresee its widespread biological significance. However, a look back at treatments as they have evolved may predict what the future holds. My approach to this topic has been influenced by a recent article inScience, which suggests
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Harriet P. Dustan (1996) conducted a review in Hypertension. Antihypertensive drug therapy was evaluated. A historical review of hypertension treatments suggests that a better understanding of the relationships between blood pressure control and vascular diseases will determine future improved therapies.
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