Patients With High Blood Pressure at Risk for Heart Attacks as They Fail to Take Medicines Regularly

A new report published in the Journal of Human Hypertension suggests that more than half of the patients suffering from high blood pressure increase their risk of suffering from strokes and heart attacks by failing to take their medication regularly. Researchers from the University of East Anglia wrote in their report that more than 10 million people in Britain fail to take their high blood pressure medication properly which could prevent thousands of strokes and heart attacks every year.

The researchers followed 136 patients from Jordan with half of them placed in an “adherence therapy” which included weekly 20 minute sessions to educate them about the necessity of talking medication properly.

The researchers found that those who were followed the therapy managed to take 97 percent of their medicines properly and on time and also showed a 14 percent decrease in their blood pressure, falling to just above the healthy range.

“Our findings suggest a clear clinical benefit in these patient-centered sessions. Tackling the widespread failure to take medication correctly would lead to a major reduction in stroke and heart disease. If adherence therapy were a new drug it would be hailed as a potentially major advance in hypertension treatment”, lead researcher Professor Richard Gray said.


Source-Medindia