[Treatment of mild hypertension with captopril and captopril with hydrochlorothiazide. Impact on blood pressure values and quality of life].

The effects of captopril alone or associated to hydrochlorothiazide on blood pressure and quality of life was studied in 244 hypertensive subjects. After a medication wash out period of 30 days (and 7 additional days when diuretics were used) patients were treated initially with captopril 25 mg b.i.d. (scheme A); if blood pressure was not normalized, hydrochlorothiazide 25 mg o.d. was added (scheme B) and the dose of captopril was increased to 50 mg bid (scheme C) in a stepwise fashion. Sixteen patients (6.6%) were lost from follow up; in the rest a significant reduction of blood pressure was obtained at the end of the treatment period (from 163/98.9 +/- 19.7/3.1 to 143/85 +/- 12.7/6.7 p < 0.05), without changes in cardiac frequency. Using captopril alone, blood pressure was normalized at 15 and 75 days in 62.9 and 70.6% of patients respectively. With captopril plus hydrochlorothiazide blood pressure was normalized in 80.9% of patients. Quality of life improved significantly from of 42.8 +/- 1.7 to 50.7 +/- 15 score points (p < 0.05) secondary effects were observed in 7.4% of patients. It is concluded that captopril alone or associated to hydrochlorothiazide is effective in the treatment of mild hypertension, produces few secondary effects and improves the quality of life.