Members appointed to the Eighth Joint National Committee have released new guidelines for managing high blood pressure, including nine recommendations and a flow chart to help doctors treat patients with hypertension.
Published online in JAMA, the guidelines address three major questions related to hypertension - the most common primary care condition, which can lead to heart attack, stroke, kidney failure and death.
In a linked editorial to the guidelines, Dr. Howard Bauchner, editor in chief of JAMA, notes that creating guidelines in the US "has become increasingly more complicated and contentious," due to stakeholder beliefs.
However, the committee members set out to address the following three questions:
- In patients with hypertension, at what blood pressure should medication be started?
- What blood pressure goal should patients aim for in order to know they are getting health benefits from their meds?
- When beginning treatment for hypertension, what are the best medication choices?
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