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RENAL FAILURE AFTER SNAKE BITE
Author(s) -
Sutherland Sk
Publication year - 1976
Publication title -
medical journal of australia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.904
H-Index - 131
eISSN - 1326-5377
pISSN - 0025-729X
DOI - 10.5694/j.1326-5377.1976.tb130444.x
Subject(s) - citation , computer science , information retrieval , library science
RtCHARD T. WHITE, Staff Specialist Psychiatrist. 4. Most antihypertensive drugs have quite bothersome side effects for a good many patients. These are no doubt well known, but not appreciated by those who have not taken them. The statement applies particularly to methyldopa, beta-blockers and diuretics. 1 have a strong feeling that in a few years the general use of diuretics as a therapeutic agent in treating hypertension will be regarded much as the old-fashioned cures by blood-letting are. 5. Young graduates appear to believe,as in the Ten Commandments, that all blood pressure should be reduced to approximately 120/80 mm Hg. I am sure this inflexible rule leads to overtreatment and a reinforcement of the erroneous belief that everything is curable if only you try hard enough. 6. My impression is that the main cause of essential hypertension is related to the stresses of modem life and its accent on achieving at whatever cost. Hand-in-hand go the secondary factors of overeating, oversmoking and overdrinking, which frequently result from this way of life. The answer to this lies not continuing the same form of existence plus taking antihypertensive drugs, but in some philosophical or public health field. My main reason for writing is a concern that the sort of statement which I quoted from the magazine typifies the belief that for all illnesses the doctor has a cure. It is bad enough that the ordinary citizen believes this: it is worse when doctors do. Hypertension (along with other cardiovascular diseases) proves to me every day that this is not so. I think we should soberly reflect on the matter. At present I am inclined to think that "essential hypertension" (as opposed to plainly organic forms of raised blood pressure) is a disease of modern living. If it can be cured, it is as likely to be done by adjusting a way of life, by reducing eating, smoking, drinking and stress. What we are now doing is rather similar to hoping that the road toll in the future will be reduced by building better expressways. 13 Morts Road, JOHN McLEOD. Mortdale, N.S.W. 2!23.