Patterns in drug utilization--national and international aspects: antihypertensive drugs.

There is a reasonable agreement between defined daily doses (DDDs) and prescribed daily doses (PDDs) of antihypertensive drugs, at least in Norway and Sweden. Sales and prescriptions of antihypertensive drugs in seven European countries (CSSR, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Northern Ireland, Norway and Sweden) have increased 50 to 200% during the last 10 years. The drug statistics also illustrate marked qualitative and quantitative differences in the utilization of antihypertensive drugs between these seven European countries. Mortality in cardiovascular diseases also differs between these countries, particularly between Northern Ireland and Finland and the other countries. So do sales of alcohol and tobacco. However, none of these factors seem to co-vary with drug utilization.