Study Criticizes Drug Prescriptions: Doctors are prescribing...

Study Criticizes Drug Prescriptions: Doctors are prescribing expensive new high blood pressure medication for elderly patients without evidence that they work better than cheaper drugs, according to a study released Thursday.

“Until the newer drugs are shown to be at least as effective against stroke and other clinical problems, physicians should consider use of older, more widely tested and less-expensive medications,” said Dr. Stanley Slater, associate director for geriatrics at the National Institute on Aging, which funded the research.

The study on the decreasing use of proven diuretics is reported in the May edition of the journal Hypertension. The research was conducted by Dr. Mark Monane at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and his colleagues at Harvard Medical School in Massachusetts.

A few weeks ago, a study backed by another branch of the National Institutes of Health, the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, found a similar pattern of prescribing costly new blood pressure drugs for all adults, not just the elderly.