The PROGRESS trial three years later: Evangelism is understandable

doi:10.1136/bmj.329.7479.1404-a

BMJ 2004;329:1404 (11 December), doi:10.1136/bmj.329.7479.1404-a

Letter

The PROGRESS trial three years later

Evangelism is understandable

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

EDITOR—I think the reasons for the evangelical tone ofthe last paragraph of the commentary by MacMahon et al on thePROGRESS trial are that the authors are academic specialistsin medicine.¹ They have a clear view from their hill over theconfused swampy lowlands of everyday practice and believe theycan help guide us poor souls groping about in it.

To help my patient decide if he or she wants to risk the adverseeffects of antihypertensive drugs and whether he or she canbe bothered to take several tablets a day for the rest of hisor her life, it would be nice to have some decent informationwith which to help him or her to make a decision. This informationis slowly emerging, but is far from clear as yet.

Even if patients can understand the concepts of numbers neededto treat and the like, . . . [Full text of this article]

Peter Ward, general practitioner principal

Gateshead NE8 1NR pwward@blueyonder.co.uk

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