Hypertension is a major public health problem, but measures to reduce blood pressure and thus cardiovascular risk are complicated by the high prevalence of treatment resistance, despite the availability of multiple drugs. Drug side-effects contribute considerably to suboptimal blood pressure control. Clinicians must often rely on empirical methods to match patients with effective drug treatment...

Epidemiological evidence suggests that treatment with f l-blockers and diuretics increase the risk to develop diabetes. Prospective, randomized studies of antihypertensive drugs have demonstrated differences between different classes of drugs regarding effects on insulin sensitivity. Thus treatment with ,-blockers or diuretics is associated with impairment in insulin sensitivity, whereas most m...

mirtazapine is a new antidepressant that can increase noradrenergic and serotonergic neurotransmission. it is also a postsynaptic antagonist of 5-ht2 and 5-ht3. in addition, it has only a weak affinity for 5-ht1 receptors and has very weak muscarinic anticholinergic and histamine (h1) antagonist properties. we report a case of hypertensive urgency that ensued after a patient took a single low d...