Antihypertensive therapy and lipids. Paradoxical influences on cardiovascular disease risk.

It is generally acknowledged that hypertension is associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality, and that lowering elevated blood pressure is effective in reducing that risk. However, hypertension is more likely to cause cardiovascular disease in those with additional risk factors, such as cigarette smoking, hyperlipidemia, diabetes mellitus, hypokalemia, loft ventricular hypertrophy, or electrocardiographic abnormalities. The evidence to date indicates that not all patients with mild hypertension need to be treated with drugs; not all of those receiving drug therapy should be treated with the same drugs; and the benefit of the same degree of reduction in blood pressure may not be equivalent for different drugs. The use of traditional step 1 diuretic therapy is not uniformly appropriate. As an alternative, the vasodilator prazosin can be effective as monotherapy in the treatment of mild hypertension, and its addition to diuretic or beta blocker therapy appears to blunt or prevent the adverse effects of those agents on lipid levels. Since prazosin therapy is least likely to worsen existing risk factors or precipitate their occurrence, it should enhance the benefit of blood pressure reduction in delaying or preventing cardiovascular disease.