Guidelines from the British Hypertension Society: Is hypertension really a disease?

doi:10.1136/bmj.329.7465.570

BMJ 2004;329:570 (4 September), doi:10.1136/bmj.329.7465.570

Letter

Guidelines from the British Hypertension Society

Is hypertension really a disease?

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITOR—In the guidelines from the British HypertensionSociety Williams et al say that the prevalence of hypertensionis 42% in people aged 35-64.¹ This must mean that in older patientsthe condition is present in well over half of the population.

With such a huge prevalence it is not surprising that controlof this "disease" in the United Kingdom is so poor. Perhapsgeneral practitioners would have been wise to calculate thetime and effort (never mind the ethics) entailed in controllingthe blood pressure of millions of elderly patients before acceptingthis aspect of the new contract for general medical services.

More importantly, has the disease model for diagnosis and treatmentof hypertension been accepted by the population at large? Dopeople really want polypharmacy, with its attendant risks, sothat they are marginally less likely to die of cardiovasculardisease and so marginally more likely to . . . [Full text of this article]

Paul A Sackin, general practitioner

Alconbury, Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire PE28 4EQ paulsackin@compuserve.com

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