Xerostomia and Salivary Flow in Patients Taking Antihypertensive Drugs

Abstract

The aims of this systematic review are (1) to compare the prevalence of xerostomia and hyposalivation between patients taking antihypertensive drugs with a control group (CG), (2) to compare salivary flow rate between patients treated with a CG, and (3) to identify which antihypertensives produce xerostomia. This systematic review was carried out according to the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. To evaluate methodological quality of the eligible studies Cochrane Collaboration tool for assessing the risk of bias for clinical trials and the modified Newcastle–Ottawa scale case-control studies were used. The databases were searched for studies up to November 19th 2019. The search strategy yielded 6201 results and 13 publications were finally included (five clinical trials and eight case-control studies). The results of the included studies did not provide evidence to state that patients taking antihypertensives suffer more xerostomia or hyposalivation than patients not taking them. With regard to salivary flow, only two clinical studies showed a significant decrease in salivary flow and even one showed a significant increase after treatment. The case–control studies showed great variability in salivary flow, but in this case most studies showed how salivary flow is lower in patients medicated with antihypertensive drugs. The great variability of antihypertensive drugs included, the types of studies and the outcomes collected made it impossible to study which antihypertensive drug produces more salivary alterations. The quality assessment showed how each of the studies was of low methodological quality. Therefore, future studies about this topic are necessary to confirm whether antihypertensive drugs produce salivary alterations.