Prescribing pattern of antihypertensive drugs in a general hospital in central China

To examine the prescribing pattern of antihypertensive drugs in outpatients with hypertension in a general hospital in central China and identify whether the pattern of prescribing is appropriate and in accordance with national and international guidelines for pharmacotherapy of hypertension.

The internal medicine department of Zhongnan Hospital in central China.

Antihypertensive prescription data were collected from the hospital's central computer database from 1 March 2008 to 31 March 2008.

The most frequently used antihypertensive medications, as a percentage of treatment and of monotherapy or combination therapy.

1,206 prescriptions were included in the analysis. The mean age of the patient population was 61.3 ± 13.7 years and 68.6% were male. The mean number of drugs used by the patient was 1.45 ± 0.66. Of the patients, 62.9% were receiving monotherapy, 29.4% two drugs, 6.9% three drugs, and 0.8% four drugs. Most patients were receiving calcium channel blockers (58.0%), followed by angiotensin receptor blockers (34.2%), angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (17.5%), beta-blockers (16.9%) and diuretics (16.7%).

This study showed that most outpatients with hypertension in our hospital received monotherapy although national and international guidelines indicated that monotherapy achieves the BP target in only a limited number of hypertensive patients. We also found that the most frequently used class of antihypertensive drugs was calcium channel blockers then angiotensin receptor blockers. Despite the various benefits of diuretics, they remain underutilized. Moreover, calcium channel blockers were used most frequently in hypertensive patients with comorbidities.