Comparing hypertension guidelines

doi:10.1136/bmj.313.7066.1203

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Guidelines are based on evidence from trials, not normal practice

T J Scanlon,
R Luben,
P Lyle

Senior registrar in public health medicine East Sussex, Brighton and Hove Health Authority, Brighton BN1 4ST
Medical statistician Institute of Public Health, University of Cambridge CB2 2SR
General practitioner Silverdale Road Surgery, Burgess Hill RH15 0EF

EDITOR,—T P Fahey and T J Peters illustrate well the difficulties that general practitioners face in deciding whether to treat hypertension, given the variation in published guidelines.1 One factor that they do not consider, however, is that the treatment levels set in guidelines are based on evidence from trials rather than measurement in normal practice.

We examined …