In people with mild-to-moderate hypertension, nonselective beta-blockers lowered peak BP by a mean of -10/-7 mmHg (systolic/diastolic) and reduced heart rate by 12 beats per minute. Propranolol and penbutolol were the two drugs that contributed to most of the data for nonselective beta-blockers. This estimate is likely exaggerated due to the presence of extreme outliers and other sources of bias. If we removed the extreme outliers from the analysis, the estimate for non-selective beta-blockers was lower (-8/-5 mmHg (systolic/diastolic)). Nonselective beta-blockers did not show a convincing graded dose-response in the recommended dose range for systolic BP and diastolic BP, while higher dose nonselective beta-blockers provided greater reduction of heart rate. Using higher dose nonselective beta-blockers might cause more side effects, such as bradycardia, without producing an additional BP lowering effect. The effect of nonselective beta-blockers on pulse pressure was likely small, at about 2 mmHg.
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