A review of the Joint National Committee on Detection, Evaluation, and Treatment of High Blood Pressure. The Fifth Report, 1993.

JNC-V is a comprehensive document that also contains a variety of specific information about drug actions, interactions, and specific indications and contraindications for each class of antihypertensive drugs. In addition, there are recommendations regarding patient evaluation and follow-up. Individual sections deal with blood pressure management in special situations and in different populations. References are included to support the assertions made and to permit further assessment by the reader of some of the evidence that the committee used to reach its conclusions. In sum, the new Joint National Committee Report continues a tradition of bringing to the profession and the public at large the current best judgment regarding practice that is constantly in evolution. It is not the ultimate document, but another step toward a goal that remains the same. That goal is to reduce cardiovascular morbidity and mortality, improve and extend life, and to achieve these objectives in the least intrusive and most efficient way possible.