Polypharmacy eases your blood pressure?

Recently, a group of British researchers made an interesting publication about the treatment of high blood pressure.

They combined four kinds of drugs: irbesartan, amlodipine, hydrochlorothiazide, and atenolol, with each of a quarter of usual dosage.

Irbesartan is an angiotensin II recepter blocker. Amlodipine is a traditional calcium channel blocker. Hydrochlorothiazide is a type of diuretic. And, atenolol is a typical beta blocker. Each of them is commonly used against hypertension. The researchers believe the combination of the four drugs is powerful enough to normalize most patients' blood pressure with less adverse effects. The result of a clinical trial was impressive.

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If this outcome is reliable, treatment for hypertension will proceed to the next stage. However, I am skeptical of this hypothesis. In the region of psychopharmacology, medical practitioners were willing to find an effective recipe of mixed several neuroleptic medications. But it resulted in a serious failure. Blocking several receptors in the brain using polypharmacy made patients dull and suppressed, but not calm. And patients were suffering from several long-lasting side effects.

Of course, usage of cardiovascular drugs is different from psychopharmacology. I expect researchers will optimize the effectiveness of the medication.