Article
Can Pharmacists Help With Hypertension Management?
A secondary analysis on results of the CAPTION trial pointed to a role for pharmacists in helping tailor the treatment regimen for patients with hypertension, although it did not improve blood pressure control.
The CAPTION trial, conducted at the University of Iowa, evaluated the influence of a pharmacist-physician collaboration in managing hypertension in 625 patients with uncontrolled hypertension. Using JNC7 guidelines, pharmacists worked with physicians to recommend changes and also participated in educating patients on self-management. While the study found that pharmacists initiated 4.9 changes in dose or drug compared with 1.1 on average in usual care, during the 9 month period when the study was conducted across 32 care centers, there was no significant difference between the total nuber of medications between groups. According to one of the study authors, pharmacists were tried to tailor—not intensify—the regimen to meet the goals.
The study was presented at the recently concluded 2015 annual meeting of the American Society of Hypertension.
Complete report on MedPage Today: http://bit.ly/1FvD1T9
