Reserpine, an old antihypertensive drug, has too many side effects to take?

Dr. Clove once said what are the commonly used antihypertensive drugs. Some readers found that among the five categories of drugs, why is there not the one I eat?

Here comes their question:

How is the effect of Zhenju antihypertensive tablets?

Is reserpine a big side effect?

Can apocynum venetum be eaten for a long time?

Hypotension 0 heard that the side effects are very big, can you still eat?

The types of drugs you asked belong to traditional fixed compound preparations and old antihypertensive drugs. Most of them are a combination of hydrochlorothiazide, reserpine, dihydrazine or clonidine, plus some sedative, traditional Chinese medicine, calcium, magnesium and potassium preparations and vitamin auxiliary components.

Why do many people use it, but when Dr. Clove said that antihypertensive drugs are commonly used, he did not mention these drugs? The main reason is that this part of drugs is no longer the first recommended drug for treating hypertension.

Why not recommend these drugs?

Mainly due to the limited level of medical technology at that time, the scientificity and rationality of these drug formulations were not verified by strict clinical trials and there was no standardized large-scale randomized controlled study.

The main components in these traditional drugs, except hydrochlorothiazide, reserpine and other components are not commonly used drugs recommended by the current guidelines, with many adverse reactions.

Most importantly, although these drugs can lower blood pressure, they lack evidence to protect cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, prolong survival time and improve quality of life.

Can I still take these medicines?

Although there are so many shortcomings, these drugs are low in price and have certain antihypertensive effects, which played an important role in the treatment of hypertension in the 1960s and 1970s.

As to whether these drugs can still be used, a relatively unified view is that these drugs can be used to control blood pressure, especially in economically underdeveloped areas, for patients with mild and moderate elevation of blood pressure, normal liver and kidney functions, no cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, diabetes and hyperlipidemia.

There are also doctors who have found in clinical work that some patients with refractory hypertension can have good blood pressure control after reserpine is added.

Therefore, whether such drugs should be used or not requires doctors to make individualized choices according to the patient’s situation.

When using these old drugs to lower blood pressure, two points should be paid attention to:

  1. Use small doses to reduce adverse reactions. When the blood pressure is not well controlled or the blood pressure fluctuates with these drugs, do not increase the dosage, go to the hospital in time, and switch to the five antihypertensive drugs recommended in the guidelines under the guidance of the doctor, or use a combination of drugs.

  2. Don’t use the old drugs in combination. As mentioned earlier, the ingredients of these antihypertensive drugs are similar. If used in combination, it will not only not increase the antihypertensive effect, but also aggravate the adverse reactions.

In addition, we should carefully read the drug instructions and pay attention to the main ingredients in the drug.

    Compound preparation containing reserpine, For example, Jiangya No.0, Compound Reserpine Tablets, Patients with peptic ulcer, gastrointestinal hemorrhage (hematemesis or melena), depression, suicidal tendency and sinus bradycardia cannot use it. Compound preparation containing clonidine, For example, Zhenju Jiangya Tablets cannot be used by people with depression and suicidal tendencies. Compound preparations containing dihydrazine, such as Compound Reserpine Tablets and Compound Apocynum Venetum Tablets, may cause heart rate increase and induce angina pectoris, which cannot be used by patients with angina pectoris attacks.