Behavioral treatment of hypertensive heart disease in African Americans: rationale and design of a randomized controlled trial.
African Americans experience higher morbidity and mortality than Whites do as a result of hypertension and associated cardiovascular disease. Chronic psychosocial stress has been considered an important contributing factor to these high rates. The authors describe the rationale and design for a planned randomized controlled trial comparing Transcendental Meditation, a stress-reduction technique, with lifestyle education in the treatment of hypertension and hypertensive heart disease in urban African Americans. They pretested 170 men and women aged 20 to 70 years over a 3-session baseline period, with posttests at 6 months. Outcomes included clinic and ambulatory blood pressure, quality of life, left ventricular mass measured by M-mode echocardiography, left ventricular diastolic function measured by Doppler, and carotid atherosclerosis measured by beta-mode ultrasound. This trial was designed to evaluate the hypothesis that a selected stress reduction technique is effective in reducing hypertension and hypertensive heart disease in African Americans.
Schneider
R H
RH
rschneid@mum.edu
Castillo-Richmond
A
A
Alexander
C N
CN
Myers
H
H
Kaushik
V
V
Aranguri
C
C
Norris
K
K
Haney
C
C
Rainforth
M
M
Calderon
R
R
Nidich
S
S
D000328:Adult; D001741:Black or African American; D000368:Aged; D001161:Arteriosclerosis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000503:physiopathology; D001521:Behavior Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D002340:Carotid Artery Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000503:physiopathology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000628:therapy*; D017379:Hypertrophy, Left Ventricular / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015995:Prevalence; D011446:Prospective Studies