5 mg lisinopril

[abbydabby]

hi I'm new on here, was just after a bit of advice please.. is it possible that on diagnosing you with hypertension, the doctor puts you on a starter 2.5gm dose of lisinopril, this is not enough to lower the blood pressure and so he increases it to 5mg. He gets a satisfactory read next visit (so from that one visit with satisfactory read) the doctor is happy that the raised blood pressure is controlled. So you are prescribed a daily dose of 5mg of lisinopril for maintenance of a controlled blood pressure....... you are to be reviewed in 12 months.

Is it possible that once leaving the doctors,,,,,,that the 5mg becomes no longer sufficient to control the raised blood pressure? Should maintenance not be a higher dose..10/20mg?

thankyou for any helpful advice

[PMRpro]

It is a common way of starting BP meds - it is called titration. Everyone responds a bit differently and the dose I need may be far more than you need and you then start passing out because of your BP being too low. So by starting low and working up slowly they find the optimum dose for you. You can't really say what your maintenance dose is without doing it this way.

I'm a bit horrified that a doctor accepted a single good reading - IMHO he should be reviewing you every month at first to be sure it is stable at a good level - and possibly even getting the nurse or local pharmacist to check it more often. After a couple of months of good readings that would be a case of review in 6 months or a year. BP varies a lot through the day and saying that one good reading at the doctor's shows it is OK is a bit optimistic!

[MEW53]

AbbyDAbby,

I’m on lisinopril and take 5mg, for info it’s an ACE inhibitor drug.Hypertension is one of those things where to get the dosage right, it a bit like trial and error.

My GP asks for home readings, cos I get white coat syndrome (my readings are higher in the surgery) when my BP is taken. My own machine was calibrated to his machine. You can buy them really cheaply now - Lloyd’s the chemist sell them, if you’re in the UK.

You may want to take some of your own readings and keep a diary, you can always email Them to your surgery. Better to work upwards with dose changes rather than the other way around.

Try and do some of your own monitoring, at least it’ll give you peace of mind.

Good Luck

[Hidden]

I take Losartan for my hypertension having been tried on a few others first. They tested me every few weeks, taking the middle of 3 different readings and also checking my full blood count for kidney function and other stiff - plus pee samples when my e-GFR dipped on Ramipril I think.

As others have said it’s a case of trial and error. I’m presently testing myself with an Emron home monitori bought online a free years ago - 3 times a day 3 times a week for a month at my GP’s request. So far the readings have mostly been okay. I definitely suffer from white cost syndrome and often wonder if I do actually have essential Hypertension.

[abbydabby]

thanks guys i appreciate your comments

[Sara_A]

No generally 5-10mgs daily will be sufficient, it depends how high ur bp was and how long after starting ur lisinopril they checked it. Usually if u are on hypertension recall u should have a blood pressure check at 6 Months