Pakistan Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences

Abstract: To analyse the literature on the efficacy and safety of medications for treating pregnancy-induced hypertension (PIH) and to provide evidence-based recommendations. PubMed, Embase and Web of Science databases were searched for studies published between January 2000 and October 2023. Studies comparing common PIH treatment drugs, either as the experimental group with an untreated control group or as a control group treated conventionally with magnesium sulphate alone or in combination with other drugs, were included in this analysis. The outcome measures assessed were overall treatment efficacy, adverse reactions and postpartum haemorrhage. The quality of the selected studies was evaluated using the Jadad scale and Cochrane risk-of-bias assessment tool. Medications significantly increased treatment efficacy (relative risk [RR] = 2.50, 95% CI = 1.85-3.37, P < 0.00001), reduced adverse reactions (RR = 0.52, 95% CI = 0.38-0.69, P < 0.0001) and decreased the risk of postpartum haemorrhage by 43% (95% CI = 0.35-0.69; P < 0.0001). Common treatment medications significantly increased the overall efficacy of PIH treatment and reduced the incidence of adverse reactions compared with the control treatments. Additionally, these medications reduced the risk of postpartum haemorrhage.