The committee agreed there was insufficient evidence of benefit to recommend that people pursue this option themselves and agreed to remove this recommendation. It is not the intention of the committee to stop people from trying relaxation therapies if they wish to, but to make people aware that there is less evidence for benefit of this intervention compared with other lifestyle interventions or pharmacological treatment. The committee agreed that the clinical focus for non-pharmacological treatment of hypertension should be on encouraging people to make lifestyle changes, such as taking regular exercise and maintaining a healthy weight. The committee agreed that further research would be useful to determine whether relaxation therapies are a clinically effective treatment for hypertension in terms of reducing cardiovascular events or improving quality of life (see the recommendation for research on relaxation therapies). They also noted that a larger study would be needed to obtain meaningful results. How this might affect practice Relaxation therapies were not recommended for routine use in the 2011 guideline, and they are not used in current practice for the management of primary hypertension in adults. The 2011 recommendation advised that people may try them as part of their treatment to reduce blood pressure, but committee consensus was that uptake has been low. Therefore, current practice will not be affected by the removal of the 2011 recommendation. Starting antihypertensive drug treatment Why the committee made the recommendations The evidence suggested that antihypertensive drug treatment was effective at reducing cardiovascular events in people with a clinic blood pressure of 160/100 mmHg or more (stage 2 hypertension). A large study also suggested there was benefit of treating people with stage 1 hypertension. 