BP – Blood Pressure treatment discovery

Blood pressure treatment is safer and more effective with two medicines than one, a study has shown. The results are likely to change the way doctors treat the condition, a major risk factor for heart attacks and strokes. Patients are normally given one drug, with others added, if needed, over a period of months. But the Accelerate study shows it is best to start treatment with two medicines together at the same time as it can result in much faster and more effective control of blood pressure, with fewer side effects. Professor Morris Brown, from Cambridge University, who led the trial, said: "The Accelerate study breaks the mould for treating hypertension (high blood pressure). Most patients can now be prescribed a single combination pill and know that they are optimally protected from strokes and heart attacks."


Prof. Bryan Williams, from the British Hypertension Society, said: "This study is important and the findings could change the way we approach the treatment of high blood pressure." The research, which involved 1,250 patients with high blood pressure, is published in an early online edition of The Lancet medical journal. It shows that starting treatment with the two drugs aliskiren and amlodipine in a combination pill produces a 25% better response in patients than conventional "monotherapy". The scientists suspect taking the drugs in series allows the body to neutralise each of them in turn. Having them together may prevent this from happening.


Almost 10 million people in the UK are believed to have high blood pressure.