Drug Delays Development of High Blood Pressure

A new study suggests the blood-pressure-lowering drug Atacand may be able to delay the development of full-blown hypertension among people whose blood pressure is slightly high.

Taking this drug for two years appeared to prime the body to keep blood pressure in check, even when the person stopped the drug for another two years.

For the study, the researchers studied 772 people who fell into the high end of prehypertension. For two years, half the participants were given Atacand and the other half, a placebo. Then for the next two years, they all were given placebo. All the participants also got diet and exercise counseling throughout the four-year study.

During the first two years, people on Atacand were two-thirds less likely to develop high blood pressure. During the second two-year period with all participants taking placebo, there was still a significant difference in high blood pressure rates between the two groups, although it wasn't as large. The participants who had originally been on Atacand were 16% less likely to develop high blood pressure than the original placebo group after four years. The risk of side effects was low in both groups.

"The bottom line," says Stevo Julius, MD, ScD, an emeritus professor of cardiovascular medicine at the University of Michigan Medical Center in Ann Arbor, "is that if you treat early, the drug is well-tolerated and you can postpone hypertension. Two years of treatment with Atacand gives you one year of extra protection."

That said, "the effect was moderate and we need to improve on it," he says.