ABSTRACT
This chapter compares General Practitioners (GPs) adherence to pharmacotherapeutic advice given in three guidelines of the Dutch College of General Practitioners: hypertension (1999), depression (1994/2003) and cystitis (1999). These three guidelines cover diagnoses that are frequently presented in Dutch general practice. The second Dutch National Survey of General Practice (DNSGP-2) prevalence rate of hypertension was 57.1 per 1000 patients in 2001, for depression 21.2 per 1000 patients and for cystitis 38.5 per 1000 patients. The most prescribed non-matching antihypertensive drug was amlodipine, a calcium channel blocker. More than 5% of all prescriptions for hypertension consisted of the relatively new angiotensin II receptor blockers like losaran, candesartan and valsartan. These prescriptions do not match the advice in the guidelines. One should be careful to interpret these results in terms of rationality or quality. There are many reasons why GPs would consciously deviate from the guidelines.
