Efficacy of antihypertensive treatment for stroke prevention

Antihypertensive therapy can prevent stroke. This has been shown in patients with severe as well as mild hypertension, and in young, middle-aged, and elderly hypertensive patients. However, although prevention of stroke ranks very high among the proven benefits of antihypertensive therapy, there are several aspects of this benefit that deserve discussion. These include: 1) the benefits on fatal and non-fatal strokes, respectively; 2) the possibly greater benefits resulting from a greater reduction in blood pressure than the reduction achieved in most trials; 3) the relative benefits on haemorrhagic and thrombotic strokes, respectively; 4) the effects of antihypertensive therapy in patients with a previous stroke; and 5) the efficacy of different antihypertensive drugs on stroke prevention.