Prescribing and usage patterns of two antihypertensive agents: a comparison of terazosin and enalapril

The prescribing and usage patterns of two antihypertensive agents, terazosin (Hytrin) and enalapril maleate (Vasotec) were analyzed and compared over a 6-month study period, using data from the PDS Alpha Data Base. The study analyzed several variables for both physician prescribing patterns and patient responses. Overall, the two agents performed equally well during the study period, with 6-month retention rates (% of patients who continued to take the same medication) of approximately 60%. Although both drugs are judged to be good candidates for first-line antihypertensive therapy, it was observed during the study that family practitioners write considerably more prescriptions for terazosin than enalapril, while internists write more enalapril prescriptions. We concluded that these differences in prescribing and usage patterns were largely attributable to the manufacturers' marketing strategies and to how various physicians perceive the two agents, rather than to actual clinical differences between them.