Current concepts of pharmacotherapy in hypertension: thiazide-type diuretics: ongoing considerations on mechanism of action.

Thiazide-type diuretics have enjoyed a considerable success in the management of hypertension. These drugs have assumed a standard-of-care position in the minds of many health care providers; however, a number of questions remain unresolved in relation to their use. Such questions include issues of mechanism of action, comparability to loop-diuretics in their actions, class-effect, and the basis for their additivity with non-diuretic antihypertensive medication classes. Understanding these issues is important to the effective use of these compounds.