Question

Imagine you are employed by Merck, Sharp & Dohme to market Diuril in the mid-1960s. In at least 200 words discuss your plan for convincing doctors that they should prescribe Diuril to asymptomatic patients. In your response, you may consider some of the following questions: What are the benefits of Diuril over other antihypertensives? Given what we learned about the VA Trial and the Framingham Heart Study, what are the problems with hypertension and what benefits are there to treating an asymptomatic patient?

Answer 1

Diuril is a trade name for chlorothiazide which has antihypertensive properties.This drug is commonly taken orally, absorbed rapidly, reaches a peak blood level by approximately 3 hours and excreted through kidneys.This drug acts on the renal tubules and affect the glomerular filtration rate and causes sodium depletion natriuresis, thereby decreasing high blood pressure. This thiazide drug could be used as a first line drug for the treatment of hypertension or could be taken to enhance the action of other antihypertensives.Moreover, this drug is also used to treat edema caused by severe hypertension, renal failure and congestive heart failure.

The other name of hypertension is silent killer.This name suggests that hypertension could cause progressive damage of vital structures of human body such as blood vessels, nerves, joints, heart, kidneys, eyes, reproductive system and brain. Damage to these structures lead to serious complications such as atherosclerosis, heart attacks, aneurysm, hemorrhage, stroke, retinopathy, renal failure, sexual dysfunction and other conditions.

Asymptomatci hypertension occurs when the systolic blood pressure is more than 180mm of Hg and diastolic blood pressure is more than 110mm of Hg without any organ damage. By treating an asymptomatic patient, complications such as cardiovascular conditions, cerebrovasular accidents, encephalopathy, retinopathy, renal failure could be prevented at an earlier phase. The goal of treatment is to start and maintain the use of antihypertensives in the effective treatment of hypertension so as to maintain compliance among patients that would improve their outcomes.