Lisinopril: medicine to treat high blood pressure By Taj Pharma

 

Lisinopril is a medicine to treat high blood pressure and heart failure.

It's also prescribed after a heart attack and in diabetic kidney disease.

Lisinopril helps prevent future strokes and heart attacks. It also improves your survival if you're taking it after a recent heart attack or for heart failure.

And it also slows down diabetic kidney disease.

This medicine is only available on prescription. It comes as tablets.

It also comes as a liquid for people who find it hard to swallow tablets, but this has to be ordered specially by your doctor.

Lisinopril is also available combined with another blood pressure medicine called hydrochlorothiazide.

NHS coronavirus advice

If you have coronavirus, or think you might have it, keep taking your blood pressure medicines as usual.

There is no clear evidence that taking angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors like lisinopril will cause complications.

Updated: 17 March 2020

2. Key facts

Lisinopril lowers your blood pressure and makes it easier for your heart to pump blood around your body.

Your very first dose of lisinopril may make you feel dizzy, so it's best to take it at bedtime. After that you can take lisinopril at any time of day.

Some people get a dry, irritating cough with lisinopril.

If you get severe diarrhoea or vomiting from a stomach bug or illness, tell your doctor. You may need to stop taking lisinopril for a while until you feel better.

Drinking alcohol with lisinopril can make you feel dizzy or lightheaded.

Lisinopril is also called by the brand name Zestril. When it's mixed with hydrochlorothiazide, it can be called Carace Plus, Lisoretic and Zestoretic.

3. Who can and cannot take lisinopril

Lisinopril can be taken by adults and children aged 6 years and over.

If you have diabetes, check your blood sugar (glucose) more often, particularly in the first few weeks. This is because lisinopril can lower the sugar level in your blood.

Lisinopril is not suitable for everyone.

To make sure lisinopril is safe for you, tell your doctor if you:

have had an allergic reaction to lisinopril or any other medicine in the past

are trying to get pregnant, are already pregnant or breastfeeding

are having dialysis or any other type of blood filtration

have heart, liver or kidney problems

have unstable or low blood pressure

have diabetes

are going to have a major operation (surgery) or general anaesthetic to put you to sleep

have recently had diarrhoea or vomiting

are on a low-salt diet

are going to have desensitisation treatment to reduce your allergy to insect stings

have a blood problem, such as a low white blood cell count (neutropenia or agranulocytosis)

4. How and when to take it

It's usual to take lisinopril once a day.

Your doctor may suggest that you take your first dose before bedtime because it can make you dizzy.

After the very first dose, you can take lisinopril at any time of day. Try to take it at the same time every day.

Dosage

The dose of lisinopril you take depends on why you need the medicine. Take it as instructed by your doctor.

To decide your dose, your doctor will check your blood pressure and ask you if you're getting any side effects.

You may also have blood tests to check how well your kidneys are working and the amount of potassium in your blood.

Depending on why you're taking lisinopril, the usual starting dose is between 2.5mg and 10mg once a day.

This will be increased gradually over a few weeks to a usual dose of:

20mg once a day for high blood pressure (the maximum dose is 80mg once a day)

10mg once a day after a recent heart attack

20mg to 35mg once a day for heart failure

10mg to 20mg once a day for diabetic kidney disease

Doses are usually lower for children.

Lisinopril: medicine to treat high blood pressure