Antihypertensive treatment. Prescription and cost of drugs. Survey in a tertiary care hospital

PURPOSE: To study the most prescribed anti-hypertensive drugs, evaluating their agreement with established guidelines and drug cost. METHODS: One hundred and forty one (101 women, mean age = 53.3 years) hypertensive patients who searched spontaneous attention were interviewed in a tertiary-care hospital. The inclusion criteria were previous diagnosis of hypertension and non cardiovascular complaints. RESULTS: The majority of the 107 (75.9%) patients were on medical treatment. In those receiving monotherapy, thiazides were the most utilized drugs, followed by methyldopa, ACE inhibitors, calcium channel-blockers, and beta-blockers. The association with thiazides (26.3%) followed the same preference. The second most prescribed drug, methyldopa, was the more expensive. Fifty percent of the patients purchased the drugs at their own expense. CONCLUSION: A preference for prescription of expensive drugs for hypertension was detected in this sample in Brazil. This does not agree with major guidelines, mainly the V-JNC, which suggest thiazides and betablockers as first choice drugs for hypertensives with no complications or associated comorbidity.