Small and large doses of guanfacine (Estulic Sandoz) in the treatment of hypertension.

The paper offers therapeutic experience with guanfacine (Estulic Sandoz) in large and small doses in patients with hypertension. A daily dose of 3-4 mg of guanfacine led to a decrease in blood pressure in about half of patients with moderate to severe hypertension. However, therapy had to be discontinued in several instances due to frequent occurrence of adverse side effects. The recently recommended smaller doses (2 x 1 mg) of guanfacine indicated primarily in patients with renal dysfunction or diabetes mellitus resulted in an extremely good therapeutic response; the frequency of undesirable effects was about the same as with other antihypertensive therapeutic protocols. The drug seems to offer more benefits in special indications with a concomitant disease rather than as a third drug of a combination used in severe hypertension.