ABSTRACT
Introduction It is no longer a question of ‘should we treat’ hypertension, but ‘how to treat’ and ‘who to treat’. However, a recurrent argument is that new antihypertensive agents are simply expensive ways of lowering blood pressure (BP) with limited evidence of a beneficial effect on prognosis-the job can equally be done by ‘old’ drugs, such as the thiazide diuretics and beta-blockers, which have withstood the test of time and outcome trials. This is despite some recent views that it is time ‘to call a halt’ to betablocker use in hypertension 1.
