Call to action: British and Irish hypertension society position statement on blood pressure treatment thresholds and targets
British and Irish Hypertension Society · 2025 · United Kingdom
Source and licence
- Authors
- Luca Faconti, Nayanatara Tantirige, Neil R Poulter et al.
- Title
- Call to action: British and Irish hypertension society position statement on blood pressure treatment thresholds and targets
- Journal
- Journal of Human Hypertension, 2025
- Licence
- CC BY 4.0
- Changes
- Verbatim excerpts; formatting adapted
Full text retrieved 2026-10-27 from Europe PMC · PMC12353784
Licence statement of the original publication
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This page reproduces excerpts of the original publication; the original is authoritative. It has not been reviewed by a physician, does not state a recommendation of Medelix and does not replace medical advice. The guideline may have been updated since.
Open the original publication →Full text on Europe PMC
Recommendations
We found no explicitly labelled recommendations in this publication; its recommendations are in the running text of the original.
Abstract
In this position statement the British and Irish Hypertension Society (BIHS) present a review of the current evidence for blood pressure (BP) treatment thresholds and targets. The BIHS recommend initiating pharmacological antihypertensive therapy, irrespective of cardiovascular disease risk, following a confirmed diagnosis of hypertension (sustained out-of-office BP ≥ 135/85 mmHg despite diet and lifestyle advice). The BIHS recommend an on-treatment BP target < 130/80 mmHg or as low as reasonably achievable without causing unacceptable side-effects, within 6-months of initiating treatment, for all adults. Possible subgroups to whom this may not apply are those who are frail and/or have limited life expectancy where higher targets may be appropriate based on clinical judgement and the individuals’ tolerance to treatment. The BIHS believe that this simple 2-step approach will facilitate practitioners deliver evidence-based best practice, discourage therapeutic inertia around BP lowering and improve heath outcomes for all adults living with high BP.
Contents of the original publication
The section headings of the original.
- Statement
- BP threshold for treatment
- On-treatment BP target
- Ethical approval
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