Candesartan

Manage my meds - for patients and carers
Scottish Government Effective Prescribing & Therapeutics Division
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What is Candesartan? (Amias, Atacand)

  • Candesartan is used to treat heart failure and high blood pressure.
  • It relaxes and widens your blood vessels. This reduces the pressure in your blood.
  • Candesartan is one of a family of medicines called Angiotensin Receptor Blockers (ARBs). They are called this because they achieve their effect on your blood vessels by blocking the action of a chemical called Angiotensin II, which normally narrows your blood vessels.

Find out more at: 

https://patient.info/medicine/candesartan-an-angiotensin-receptor-blocker-amias-atacand

https://www.medicines.org.uk/emc/search?q=candesartan

 

How likely is Candesartan to help me?

Key

  • This grey face represents the number of people in the survey group.
  • This green face represents the one person in the survey group that the medicine has helped.

Research suggests:

In a group of 40 patients with heart failure, Candesartan will prevent one person  from this group (on average) from dying of heart disease, or being admitted to hospital, over a period of one year.

1in40

In a group of 94 patients with heart failure, Candesartan will prevent one person from this group (on average) from dying of heart disease over the course of one year.

1in94

It is not possible to tell what will happen to you as an individual.

 

Find out more about this research at: 

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/13678870

(Tooltip -Mean age of enrolled patients was approximately 66 years. Patients were already taking other medicines as part of therapy for heart failure. Candesartan dose was 4 to 32 mg/day)

What are the possible risks of taking Candesartan?

You can discuss with your health professional  the possible side effects and other risks Candesartan might have.

Side-effects are unwanted affects that can happen to your body when taking a medicine. 

Not everyone will get side-effects. These usually improve as your body adjusts to the new medicine, but speak with your doctor or pharmacist if any of the following side-effects persist or worry you.

Here are some of the common side-effects of Candesartan - which affect less than 1 in 10 people:

  • Feeling dizzy or light-headed
  • Headache
  • Respiratory infections

There are other side-effects that are less common or rare. 

Find out more at https://patient.info/medicine/telmisartan-an-angiotensin-receptor-blocker-micardis#nav-4