Table 6.

Adverse effects of drugs: percentage of people with symptoms attributable to treatment sufficient to stop taking the tablets, according to category of drug in randomised trials (adapted from Law et al⁷)

Category of drug	No of trials	Average dose as multiple of standard	Percentage (95% CI) who stopped taking tablets because of symptoms (treated minus placebo)
Thiazides	57	1.0	0.1 (−0.7 to 0.9)*
β blockers	62	1.3	0.8 (0.3 to 1.4)
ACE inhibitors	92	1.9	0.1 (−0.3 to 0.6)*
Angiotensin II receptor antagonists	44	1.3	−0.2 (−0.5 to 0.2)*
Calcium channel blockers	92	0.5	−1.3 (−2.6 to 0.0)*

ACE=angiotensin converting enzyme.

^*Not statistically significant; however, upper confidence interval is informative.