Nearly one in five adults with hypertension take medications that can increase blood pressure, such as antidepressants, NSAIDs, oral steroids<\/p>\n<\/h3>\n
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FRIDAY, May 14, 2021 (HealthDay News) — Nearly one in five adults with hypertension reports taking medications associated with raising blood pressure (BP) levels, according to a study presented at the annual meeting of the American College of Cardiology, held virtually from May 15 to 17.<\/p>\n
John Vitarello, M.D., from the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, and colleagues used data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (10,676 participants; 2015 to 2016 and 2017 to 2018) to identify medications associated with BP elevation.<\/p>\n
The researchers found that 47.2 percent of participants had hypertension, among whom 79.5 percent had BP above the recommended goal of 130\/80 mm Hg. Nearly one in five adults with hypertension (19.0 percent) reported using one or more BP-raising medications, while 3.3 percent reported using multiple BP-raising medications. Among adults with hypertension, the most common classes of BP-raising medications were antidepressants (8.9 percent), nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (7.2 percent), and steroids (2.2 percent). Stopping a single BP-raising medication could improve population hypertension control rates by an estimated 4.8 percent.<\/p>\n
“These are medications that we commonly take — both over-the-counter and prescribed medications — that may have the unintended side effect of raising blood pressure and could have adverse effects on our heart health,” Vitarello said in a statement. “Based on our findings, we need to be more aware of polypharmacy in older adults who also have the highest burden of high blood pressure.”<\/p>\n
Press Release<\/a><\/p>\n