ABSTRACT
The majority of patients with hypertension have primary (or essential) hypertension. The pathogenesis of primary hypertension is not completely understood; at best, it is known that there are risk factors and conditions that may contribute to development of primary hypertension. This lack of understanding precludes a true cure of primary hypertension. Rather, the clinician is limited to reducing the patient’s BP to goal values through lifestyle modification and prescribing antihypertensive medications. With this approach, BP can often be reduced to normotensive levels. In the majority of cases, the only treatment is long-term BP control.
