Physician and patient evaluation of hypertension-related risks and benefits from treatment.

Implementation of management programmes in hypertension in accordance with current guidelines needs the participation not only of physicians and other health professionals, but also of the patients themselves. Patients' knowledge of, and attitudes to, cardiovascular risk factors, as well as patients' perceptions of the benefits and potential risks of treatment, are factors likely to be of importance regarding their compliance, their opinions and their acceptance of treatment. The extent to which patients are able to assess the absolute and relative risks of having hypertension, as well as individual benefits from treatment, is yet largely unexplored. Compared with a number of common drug treatments, the general adult population perceives the risks from receiving antihypertensive drug therapy as intermediate to low. Improving patients' knowledge and acceptance of antihypertensive therapy by improving the physician-patient relationship will involve patients more in their own treatment decisions, thereby probably improving the management and treatment as a whole.