Hypwivnsion Special Editorial 1980 Recommendations of the Joint National Committee on Detection, Evaluation, and Treatment of High Blood Pressure

I N 1975-76 a committee of representatives fromseveral medical organizations published a reportoutlining criteria for detecting, evaluating, and treating hypertension. Following the wide dissemina-tion of this paper,1 several clinical trials were carried out, including the "Hypertension Detection and Follow-up Program;"2 ' ' a s a result, it was suggested that the 1975-76 recommendations be revised. A new Joint National Committee has now published an up-dated version4 which restates some previous recommendations and incorporates more current in-formation concerning the benefits of treating hypertension. The decade of the 1970s was marked by great in-terest in the field of hypertension, and a shift in focus from pathophysiologic mechanisms to issues of long-term management and control. The 1975-76 Joint National Committee made an important contribution toward the control of hypertension by recommending community programs, systematized management, and simplified evaluation procedures. Information from several parts of the country leads us to believe that these recommendations have greatly increased the number of successfully treated hypertensive patients. The 1980 Joint National Committee guidelines should help to extend these gains. The key recommendations of the 1980 Joint National Committee are anchored in new data that suggest that effective lowering of blood pressure reduces mortality and morbidity in individuals classified as mild or less severe hypertensives (i.e., those having diastolic blood pressures of 90-104 mm Hg). The Veterans Administration Cooperative Study'- • had already demonstrated the effectiveness of antihypertensive therapy and given impetus to programs for control of severe and moderate hypertension in the United States. The conclusions of the Hypertension Detection and Follow-up Program extend these conclusions to the hitherto neglecte