Milestones in Antihypertensive Drug Treatment

Title:Milestones in Antihypertensive Drug Treatment

Volume: 21 Issue: 6

Author(s): Gregory Tsoucalas, Marianna Karamanou, Manolis Vavuranakis, Markos Sgantzos, Christodoulos Stefanadis and Georgios Androutsos

Affiliation:

Keywords: Antihypertensive drugs, thiazide diuretics, Beta(β)-blockers, angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors, losartan, physicianpatient relationship, medical marketing.

Abstract: Hypertension provoked since the beginning of the 19th century a medical debate between physicians. The early antihypertensive agents were poorly tolerated. Progress towards more effective drugs, appeared after the 2nd World War. Thiocyanates, dehydrogenated alkaloids of ergot, barbiturates, bismuth and bromides, were soon replaced by phenoxbenzamine, hexamethonium, pentolinium, and mecamylamine. Thiazide diuretics were the biggest breakthrough during the early 1960's. Then Beta(β)-blockers and angiotensinconverting enzyme inhibitors heralded a new era, until 1995, when losartan, the first non-peptide anti-hypertensive drug, was introduced. The plethora of the antihypertensive drugs changed the relationship between physicians and patients, pushed medicine towards prevention, and altered the medical marketing forever.

Cite this article as:

Tsoucalas Gregory, Karamanou Marianna, Vavuranakis Manolis, Sgantzos Markos, Stefanadis Christodoulos and Androutsos Georgios, Milestones in Antihypertensive Drug Treatment, Current Pharmaceutical Design 2015; 21 (6) . https://dx.doi.org/10.2174/1381612820666141023163552