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Joan Stephenson, PhD

JAMA. 2000;283:1950.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) has prematurely halted one arm of a major trial of hypertension drugs because patients taking one of the drugs—an -adrenergic blocker—did not fare as well as patients taking a more traditional diuretic.

The main portion of the Antihypertensive and Lipid Lowering Treatment to Prevent Heart Attack Trial (ALLHAT) was designed to compare four classes of drugs: an -adrenergic blocker (doxazosin), a calcium antagonist (amlodipine), an angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor (lisinopril), and a diuretic (chlorthalidone).

The NHLBI canceled the doxazosin arm of the study after the trial's data safety monitoring board discovered that study participants who were taking doxazosin had 25% more cardiovascular events and were twice as likely to be hospitalized for congestive heart failure as those who were taking chlorthalidone. The two drugs were similarly effective in preventing heart attacks and in reducing the risk of death from all . . . [Full Text of this Article]