South Australian hypertension survey. General practitioner experiences with drug treatment.

OBJECTIVE

To investigate prescribing habits, educational approaches and perceived needs of general practitioners in the drug treatment of hypertension.

DESIGN, SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: Of 156 randomly selected South Australian general practitioners 132 responded to a questionnaire survey.

MAIN FINDINGS

Diuretics are the most commonly chosen drug for the initial management of uncomplicated moderate hypertension. Equivalent patients aged 45, 60 and 75 years would be prescribed a diuretic as drug of first choice in 41%, 55% and 68% of cases respectively. Despite this, there are wide differences in the choice of initial therapy between individual practitioners. These differences can have a substantial cost impact, given that in Australia the cost of diuretic therapy for one month can be as low as $1.97 compared with $34.08 for standard angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitor therapy for one month. There was also a perceived need, and demand, for patient education materials to assist practitioners in the drug treatment of hypertension.