Starting patients on a single antihypertensive drug and ‘titrating up’ to achieve blood pressure control might soon become an outdated approach, according to new research published in The Lancet.
Instead, a combination of four drugs, each at a quarter of usual dose, may be a faster route to optimal blood pressure management.
Professor Clara Chow, director of the Cardiovascular Division at The George Institute for Global Health, said the quadpill helped address issues such as low adherence rates and treatment inertia.
“Usually a GP sees a patient and starts them on a single drug. Six weeks later they might add in another drug or increase the dose of the first drug. Six weeks later they add in another drug. There are multiple steps and time wasted before blood pressure is under control,” she told the limbic.
“However, a lot of patients stay also on monotherapy and remain effectively uncontrolled,” she added.
The quadpill – a combination of irbesartan, amlodipine, hydrochlorothiazide and atenolol delivered in a capsule – was trialed against placebo in a small proof-of-concept study of 18 patients with untreated high blood pressure.