TABLE 1.

Common hypertensive drugs and their mechanisms of action.

Medication class	Example drug	Target/Mechanism of action	References
Renin inhibitors	Aliskiren	Decrease renin activity consequently decreasing ANG II	(Sears, 2008; WHO, 2021)
		Contraindicated in patients with diabetes
Angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors	Captopril	Inhibits the conversion of ANG I to ANG II	Ram, (2008)
Angiotensin receptor blockers	Losartan	AT1 receptor blocker	Zhang et al. (2003)
Diuretics	Chlorothiazide	Increase urine excretion, lowering blood volume	Oparil, (2003)
		Side effect: Electrolyte imbalances
Beta blockers	Propranolol	Reduce heart rate and contractility	(Shand, 1975; WHO, 2021)
		Preferred hypertension treatment in patients with heart failure
Calcium channel blockers	Diltiazem	Relax vascular smooth muscle, lowers heart rate and contractility	Cushman et al. (2000)
		Common first-line therapy for people of African descent: more efficacious in this population
Alpha blockers	Terazosin	Vascular relaxation, lowers total peripheral resistance	Achari and Laddu, (1992)
Central Alpha-2 receptor agonists	Methyldopa	Activates α2 receptors, providing negative feedback to reduce norepinephrine release	(Frohlich, 1980; WHO, 2021)
		Primary antihypertensive medication given during pregnancy
Peripheral adrenergic inhibitors	Reserpine	Prevents the release of norepinephrine	Magarian, (1992)
		Prescribed when other medications do not work since it has more side effects
Vasodilators	Hydralazine	Vasodilation	Kandler et al. (2011)
Endothelin receptor antagonists	BQ123	Prevents endothelin-1 mediated vasoconstriction and changes in sodium handling	(Moore and Linas, 2010; Kohan and Barton, 2014)
		Major side effect: edema

Table 1 ANG I—angiotensin I; ANG II—angiotensin II.