THE antihypertensive drugs they were also among the best-selling in Italy in 2023 according to the most recent data from Federfarma and to date those who take these drugs for hypertension are invited to respect a regularity, without specific indications on the time of intake. Now, however, a new study conducted between the United Kingdom and Germany hypothesizes theimportance of the time at which antihypertensive drugs should be takenvariable from subject to subject and linked to chronotype.
Drugs for hypertension: when to take them?
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The current indications for taking antihypertensive drugs were confirmed in 2022 by one of the largest studies ever carried out on the topic, the study TIME carried out in England on over 21 thousand hypertensive subjects with an average age of 65 years. Over the course of the five years of analysis it emerged that the hiring time it had no influence on the effect of the drugs since the antihypertensive therapies in use today are able to cover 24 hours.
A recent international study conducted by experts from the University of Dundee in Scotland and the Helmholtz research institute in Munich, with an international team of researchers also from Italy, tried to relate the chronotypei.e. the physical and behavioral preference for the moment in which one sleeps, variable from person to person and also influenced by age and genetics, with the effects of antihypertensive drugs on the body.
The results discovered by researchers
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The research, the results of which were published in the journal eClinicalMedicine of the Lancet group, was carried out on a sample of over 5 thousand participants in the aforementioned study TIME. The researchers managed to demonstrate that subjects with morning chronotype, the so-called “larks”who took the drugs in the morning had a lower risk of acute cardiac events compared to those who took them in the evening. Conversely, subjects with evening chronotypei so-called “owls”who took the drugs in the evening had a lower risk of hospitalization for heart attack compared to those who took them in the morning.
“The research shows for the first time that considering a patient’s individual chronotype when deciding on antihypertensive therapy (personalized chronotherapy) could reduce the risk of cardiac events,” explained Dr. Filippo Pigazzaniconsultant cardiologist at the University of Dundee Faculty of Medicine and principal investigator of the study, before underlining that “the results require further confirmation from new randomized clinical trials, and above all that patients undergoing therapy should continue to take the drugs as recommended by their doctor”.
importance of chronotherapy
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Kenneth Dyarco-author of the research, took advantage of the publication of the results for highlight the importance of chronotype and the need for doctors to start considering that not all patients are the same: “Every individual has their own chronotype, determined genetically and influenced by external factors such as exposure to light and sleep-wake schedules. This internal timing regulates several biological functions, including metabolism, blood pressure and drug response.”
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The professor echoed him Roberto Manfredinidirector of the complex Medical Clinic Unit of the University Hospital of Ferrara, involved in the study: “We have always believed in the importance of the individual chronotype and in recent years many hundreds of Ferrara residents, during various scientific dissemination events of our University , enthusiastically joined the compilation of the simple test to evaluate their ‘owl or lark’ chronotype. Well, this data now becomes precious for the therapy of those suffering from arterial hypertension.”
