The use of medicines has increased markedly in many countries over recent years, providing clear evidence of the increasing ‘pharmacaeuticalisation’ of society. This paper contributes to the sociological analysis of pharmaceuticalisation by starting to explore how we can begin to make...

Lack of adherence to prescribed antihypertensive regimens constitutes a barrier to adequate blood pressure control and prevention of cardiovascular events. Various means of measuring adherence to antihypertensive medications are currently available for use in clinical practice. The choice of the...

Background: Non-adherence to antihypertensive drugs is high, and the economic consequences of non-adherence may be substantial. The Medication Events Monitoring System (MEMS), which is a method to improve adherence, has been shown to be a useful tool for the management of adherence problems....

Background: Current hypertension guidelines differ in their recommendations for first-line antihypertensive therapy. Objective: To evaluate the cost effectiveness of ACE inhibitor therapy as antihypertensive first-line therapy as compared with conventional antihypertensive therapy with...

Objective: To develop a method of value analysis which would facilitate an objective comparison of available angiotensin II antagonists as antihypertensive agents, in order to provide an adaptable framework which would allow for future developments in new product introduction and changes in...

Objective: To conduct an economic analysis in the US of antihypertensive treatment with and without benazepril in patients with chronic renal insufficiency. Design: A four-state Markov model, using clinical data obtained from a 3-year randomised clinical trial [the Angiotensin-Converting-Enzyme...

Objective: To examine the different combinations of health insurance and types of payments, and their influence on physicians' prescribing of antihypertensive drug therapy. Design: The study was based on information collected in physicians' practices, obtained from medical records and physician...

Pharmacological treatment of hypertension has been shown to reduce the risk of stroke, coronary events, heart failure and progression of renal disease. However, rates of successful blood pressure control remain low among treated patients while antihypertensive medication represents a large and...

Noncompliance is a major problem in antihypertensive treatment. Up to 50% of patients are noncompliant after 1 year and 85% after 5 years. Current approaches for predicting compliance are based on patient demographics, medication characteristics and clinical factors, health beliefs and the...

In hypertension, tolerability of drug treatment is important because individuals may see the use of antihypertensive medications as more troubling than their seemingly symptomless disease. This may result in noncompliance and ineffectual long term treatment. In the past 15 years, new...