title: Quality of life on antihypertensive therapy: a randomized double-blind controlled trial of captopril and atenolol.
abstract: A randomized double-blind study lasting 2 months was performed with either 25 mg captopril twice a day or 50 mg atenolol once a day in 125 patients with established diastolic hypertension (diastolic blood pressure greater than 95 mmHg) identified during a population screening programme of subjects aged less than 65 years. Quality of life was assessed from self-completed questionnaires. A significant fall in diastolic blood pressure occurred with both captopril (106.7 +/- 7.0 to 98.6 +/- 8.6 mmHg) and atenolol (107.4 +/- 7.5 to 98.2 +/- 8.1 mmHg) but there was no difference between the two drugs in the size of the fall. A measure of the number of symptomatic complaints, the symptom complaint rate, decreased with both drugs, by 1.3% for captopril and 3.1% for atenolol, but the difference between the drugs was not significant [1.8%; 95% confidence interval (Cl) - 1.3%, 4.9%]. There was a significant increase in the reporting of cough and runny nose in those on captopril compared with atenolol. A health index increased by 1.1% with captopril in comparison with no change on atenolol (difference 1.1%; 95% Cl - 2.0%, 4.2%). Psychological well-being was measured using the Symptom Rating Test. The improvement in total score was 1.4% with captopril and 2.3% with atenolol. The difference of 0.9% was not statistically significant (95% Cl - 1.2%, 3.0%).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Royal Postgraduate Medical School, London, UK.
authors.forename: A E
authors.initials: AE
authors.lastname: Fletcher
authors.forename: C J
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Bulpitt
authors.forename: C M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Hawkins
authors.forename: T K
authors.initials: TK
authors.lastname: Havinga
authors.forename: B S
authors.initials: BS
authors.lastname: ten Berge
authors.forename: J F
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: May
authors.forename: F H
authors.initials: FH
authors.lastname: Schuurman
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: van der Veur
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Wesseling
mesh_terms: D000339:Affect / Q000187:drug effects; D001262:Atenolol / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D002216:Captopril / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D004311:Double-Blind Method; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000523:psychology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011788:Quality of Life; D016032:Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic
chemical_list: D001262:Atenolol; D002216:Captopril