London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine

Academic Institute

CPRD02

The UK has well established guidelines for recommending statins and blood pressure lowering drugs to patients to reduce the risk of heart attacks and strokes. Statins are recommended to patients who are at high risk of heart attacks and strokes. Blood pressure lowering drugs are recommended based on both a patient’s blood pressure and their risk of heart attacks and strokes. GPs use the guideline recommendations, their own judgement, and discussions with the patient to decide on treatment. For example, when considering whether to prescribe blood pressure drugs, GPs will take into account not only the broad national guidelines but also (i) the risk of reducing blood pressure too much, which may lead to dizziness and falls, (ii) the risk of kidney disease, heart failure and stroke if a patient is not treated, and (iii) patient choice. Therefore, there are likely to be differences in the ways that the same patient would be treated across different GPs within the UK.

Background

10/06/2021

Release