China is a big country with high blood pressure, every 3 to 4 adults, there is a hypertensive patient, if you say which drug is the most commonly used antihypertensive drug for hypertension patients in China, amlodipine is one of them, control needs to take long-term antihypertensive drugs, and if long-term use of amlodipine, how to ensure the effectiveness and safety of medication? Today's popular science article will introduce the relevant content in this regard.
Amlodipine – an easy and inexpensive civilian antihypertensive drug
In a variety of antihypertensive drugs, the level calcium channel antagonist drugs are commonly used in the clinic first-line drugs, and in a variety of names with the word "dipene" in the drug, amlodipine is deservedly the most commonly used drug, compared to other horizon drugs, amlodipine is a long-acting antihypertensive drug, the drug half-life of up to 17 to 35 hours, take once a day can be taken in 24 hours to smoothly control blood pressure, in addition to medication is more convenient, amlodipine also has the effect of improving angina pectoris and protecting the heart, There are additional benefits in preventing ventricular hypertrophy due to hypertension.
In terms of drug prices, amlodipine was not expensive originally, but with the implementation of the national drug collection policy, the original price of 24.64 yuan in 14 tablets of 5mg specification amlodipine, the collection price dropped to 0.84 yuan! The price of a single tablet has dropped to about 6 cents, that is to say, if a hypertensive patient eats a piece of amlodipine every day, the total cost of a year is only more than twenty yuan, and the cost of medication is further greatly reduced.
Some friends are worried that the price of drugs has come down, the quality of drugs will decline, this point can not be too worried, into the collection of drugs, are through the national generic drug consistency evaluation of drugs, quality and efficacy and imported drugs closer, coupled with the country's strict supervision and supervision of drug production, collection of drugs that reduce prices, the quality is also completely assured.
Long-term eating amlodipine antihypertensive drugs, to ensure the effectiveness and safety of medication, not necessarily the more expensive the better, understand some precautions for taking amlodipine, to ensure safe and rational medication, is what we really should understand, today we focus on 6 aspects.
01 Long-term eating amlodipine, pay attention to blood pressure monitoring
Not only amlodipine, any long-term use of drugs to control diseases, long-term use, should do a good job of monitoring the efficacy, and the effect of antihypertensive drugs, to understand the effectiveness of the drug, do a good job of blood pressure monitoring is very important. For patients with high blood pressure, it is still very necessary to have an electronic sphygmomanometer at home to monitor blood pressure at any time.
If we are taking amlodipine antihypertensive drugs for the first time, we may wish to measure blood pressure several times a day, not only to understand whether it is effective, but also to understand the stability of the drug's blood pressure, to see if we can stabilize hypertension at various times, especially during some blood pressure peak hours, and if there is fatigue, palpitations and other symptoms after taking the drug, we should also pay attention to measuring blood pressure and paying attention to the risk of hypotension.
And for the hypertension patients who have been confirmed to be effective and have been taking amlodipine for a long time, they should also regularly measure their blood pressure to understand their own blood pressure, especially when the seasons are cold and warm, some elderly hypertensive patients need to adjust the blood pressure medication program to adapt to changes in blood pressure, in this case, it is more important to pay attention to blood pressure self-testing, find that blood pressure is out of control, or blood pressure is too low, should be timely medical treatment, adjust the medication plan.
02 Long-term eating of amlodipine, to understand the combined application of antihypertensive drugs
If taking 5 mg of amlodipine alone and the hypertension cannot be controlled to the standard level, is it necessary to choose 10 mg of amlodipine or to add another antihypertensive drug? For this problem, in the vast majority of cases, combination medications are a better option.
Simply increase the dosage of a drug, the efficacy of the drug will not increase exponentially, and if you add another mechanism of action of the antihypertensive drug, you can play a role from different physiological mechanisms, can play a 1 + 1>2 antihypertensive effect, a reasonable combination of antihypertensive drugs, but also can play a role in reducing the incidence of adverse reactions, in the joint application of drugs, the following combinations are amlodipine "good partner" -
Amlodipine + praline / sartan: Pry and sartan antihypertensive drugs are antihypertensive drugs that act on the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system, the mechanism of action is similar, and their combination with amlodipine is a classic combination of antihypertensive drugs, which have a synergistic effect in lowering blood pressure, and pry or sartan drugs can also reduce the occurrence of adverse reactions such as ankle edema of amlodipine.
Amlodipine + β receptor blockers: The combination of amlodipine and metoprolol, bisoprolol and other β blocker drugs is also a commonly used combination of drugs, amlodipine will cause sympathetic excitatory heartbeat acceleration, and β receptor blockers can just inhibit this excitability, the mechanism of action is complementary, and the drug is safer.
Amlodipine + diuretics: Amlodipine can also be used in combination with diuretic drugs, and the antihypertensive effect and cardiac protection have a certain synergistic effect.
03 Amlodipine long-term eating, to understand the adverse reactions and contraindications
Any drug has a risk of adverse reactions, and although amlodipine is relatively safe for long-term medication, it is also necessary to pay attention to the adverse reactions that may occur during medication. Adverse reactions that may occur when taking amlodipine include rapid heartbeat, flushing, gastrointestinal discomfort, constipation, etc., which can usually be tolerated gradually with the prolongation of the medication time.
The other two more important adverse reactions are edema and gingival hyperplasia, amlodipine caused by edema mostly occurs in the ankle area, may also appear in the legs, and gum hyperplasia is more often in the long-term medication process, should pay attention to whether it can be improved by adjusting the medication regimen, if the body can not tolerate, you should consider changing other types of less affective antihypertensive drugs to replace. In terms of contraindications to medication, there is no absolute contraindication to antihypertensive drugs, but because amlodipine has adverse reactions that cause rapid heartbeat, patients with hypertension and tachycardia should use amlodipine with caution.
04 Amlodipine long-term eating, to understand the drug interactions
It is also common for hypertensive patients to have other comorbidities, and in the process of taking amlodipine for a long time, when it is necessary to take other drugs together, understanding the possible drug interactions between different drugs is the focus of avoiding drug safety problems caused by taking multiple drugs.
There are many drug interactions with amlodipine, to put it simply, a few -
Common lipid-lowering drugs simvastatin, when combined with amlodipine, the blood concentration of simvastatin will increase, so it is necessary to pay attention to reducing the drug, the general daily dose should not exceed 20mg.
Long-term use of amlodipine should be avoided in combination with estrogen, which may cause fluid retention and lead to further increased blood pressure.
Long-term use of amlodipine, with nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (such as indomethacin, etc.) should be cautious, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs will reduce the antihypertensive effect of amlodipine.
In the treatment of renal diabetes insipidus, lithium (such as lithium carbonate) is a commonly used drug, lithium in combination with amlodipine, can cause neurotoxicity, nausea, vomiting, ataxia and other symptoms, should be avoided.
There are still some drug interactions with amlodipine, I will not list them one by one, if you want to avoid unreasonable drug combination in the process of medication, it is very important to carefully read the instructions or consult a professional to fully understand the possible risks of taking the same drug.
The above 4 aspects, are long-term taking amlodipine process, need to pay attention to the drug application precautions, hope to be able to see the friends to see a certain benefit, if you are in the process of medication, there are still questions, also welcome to leave a message below, we can continue to explore together.