Doctors cause a third of stubborn high blood pressure

A third of hard-to-treat high blood pressure may actually be 'fake' and instead a patient's nervous response to being seen by a doctor, say experts.

They made the discovery when they continuously monitored the blood pressure of nearly 700,000 people as they went about their normal lives.

Some 37% of 8,295 patients thought to have stubborn or resistant hypertension actually had "white coat" hypertension.

The experts call for mandatory 24-hour checks, Hypertension journal reports.

The NHS advisory body NICE has recently proposed that patients suspected of having high blood pressure will get another check at home because of fears that nerves from being at a GP surgery may be leading to too many people being diagnosed.

It says so-called white coat hypertension affects a quarter of all people.

But the latest research suggests that the phenomenon may be more common and is leading some people to have aggressive medical treatment that they may not actually need.

Resistant hypertension occurs when a patient's blood pressure remains above treatment goals, despite using three different types of drugs at the same time.

It was these patients that the researchers focused on.

They asked the patients to wear a portable "ambulatory" monitoring device that takes blood pressure readings every 20 minutes day and night.

This revealed only 63% had true resistant hypertension. These tended to be patients who either smoked or had diabetes or a heart condition.