Older Cheaper Blood Pressure Meds As Good As New Expensive Stuff

Expensive new blood pressure drugs (that cost as much as $600 a year) are no better than the long-used diuretics (that cost as little as $25 a year), according to a new study by researchers at Loyola University Health System. A Loyola press release reports that researchers studied more than 30,000 patients with high blood pressure who were randomly assigned to take either a diuretic (clorthalidone) or one of two newer drugs- a calcium blocker  (amlodipine) or an ACE inhibitor (lisinopril). The researchers reported that among patients followed for four-to-eight years, the diuretic was better than the calcium channel blocker in preventing heart failure and better than the ACE inhibitor in preventing stroke, heart failure and overall cardiovascular disease. In a newer study researchers followed participants for an additional four to five years after completion of the trial, bringing the total follow-up period to between eight and 13 years. During this longer follow-up period, the differences between the three drugs narrowed — by most measures they were a statistical dead heat, but the diuretic still was superior in two measures: Compared with the diuretic group, the ACE inhibitor group had a 20 percent higher death rate from stroke, and the calcium channel blocker group had a 12 percent higher rate of hospitalizations and deaths due to heart failure.

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