More than 90% of the UK population over 50 years old would be considered at risk of heart disease and be candidates for lifelong drug treatment if current European guidelines on blood pressure and cholesterol are strictly followed, doctors say today.

The authors of an editorial in the British Medical Journal say they are concerned that so many patients may be given a "disease label". They warn that nobody knows what the very long-term effects will be of the drugs .

"We know little of the psychological impact for patients of being told they are at risk of heart disease," they write. "The huge cost of pharmaceutical interventions for an ever greater proportion of the population has the potential to destabilise publicly funded healthcare systems in even the richest nations."