Guideline changes can affect patients, too

Last month a panel of experts recommended that the threshold for treating people over 60 for hypertension be raised from 140/90 to 150/90. The panel determined that there was little evidence that lowering systolic blood pressures between 140 and 149 in older people caused more good than harm. The change meant that, literally overnight, roughly 7 million older Americans with high blood pressure, half of whom were taking medication, no longer had that condition. The reversal of decades-old treatment guidelines has huge public health and economic implications. It can also affect both patients and physicians psychologically.

Source: Boston Globe