One of the main barriers to blood pressure control is the failure of prescribers to add medications when the blood pressure is not controlled. At a recent meeting of the European Society of Cardiology, Australian researchers reported a large study in which they used what they call the “quadpill,” which is a capsule containing quarter doses of four common and inexpensive antihypertensive medications.

The surprising finding was that the quadpill conferred greater blood pressure reductions compared with using a single medication while being just as safe and tolerable.

Blood pressure control was achieved in 81 percent of the quadpill group compared with 62 percent of the control group.

This study demonstrates the simplicity and efficacy of a quadpill-based strategy to achieve and maintain blood pressure control, that is, blood pressure control in a single step.

Not only is it easier, but it will be much less expensive than our current approaches.

The findings were published in The Lancet.

I hope we’ll be seeing the quadpill here in America.

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