Published 29 June 2009, doi:10.1136/bmj.b2597
Cite this as: BMJ 2009;338:b2597

Letters

Drug prevention of hypertension

All cause absolute benefit?

The first 100% of the full text of this article appears below.

Before I start taking blood pressure pills to reduce my currently normal blood pressure,¹ I would want to ask my doctor:

• What is my risk of dying—of anything, not just heart attacks or strokes—in the next 10 or 20 years?
  
• What is the absolute risk reduction of death as a result of drug treatment?
  
• What is my current risk of any major illness, and how would this be affected by drug treatment?
  
• What are the numbers needed to treat and to harm?
  

Have Law and colleagues presented this information so that my doctor can answer my questions? If not, I wonder whether they may be premature in stating that they have demonstrated "the value of blood pressure lowering treatment to everyone in a population above a particular age."¹

Cite this as: BMJ 2009;338:b2597

¹ London SW17 7AW

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Competing interests: None declared.

1. Law MR, Morris JK, Wald NJ. Use of blood pressure lowering drugs in the prevention of cardiovascular disease: meta-analysis of 147 randomised trials in the context of expectations from prospective epidemiological studies. BMJ 2009;338:b1665. (19 May.)[Abstract/Free Full Text]

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Authors’ reply

Malcolm Law, Joan K Morris, and Nicholas Wald
BMJ 2009 338: b2602. [Extract] [Full Text]

Use of blood pressure lowering drugs in the prevention of cardiovascular disease: meta-analysis of 147 randomised trials in the context of expectations from prospective epidemiological studies

M R Law, J K Morris, and N J Wald
BMJ 2009 338: b1665. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

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