What are the recommended treatments for hypertension?
The recommended treatments for hypertension depend on the patient's blood pressure levels. For patients who are within 10 mmHg above target, monotherapy with diuretic or calcium channel blocker is preferred, and for patients >15/10 mmHg above target, 2-drug therapy is preferred either with a calcium channel blocker plus renin-angiotensin system blocker or, in edematous or volume-overloaded states, with a thiazide diuretic plus a renin-angiotensin system blocker. Additionally, population-wide approaches to reducing blood pressure, such as providing BP-lowering medications to all patients above a certain age or reducing salt intake, may be recommended as more effective than approaches focused on screening individual patients for the presence of hypertension and treating them. Lastly, self-measured BP monitoring is recommended because with or without additional support it lowers BP compared with usual care.