Effect of antihypertensive treatment on the behavioral consequences of elevated blood pressure.

It was shown in a prior study that mildly hypertensive patients performed significantly less effectively on several sensory-perceptual, cognitive, and psychomotor tests than did matched normotensive controls. To determine whether these deficits are attributable to elevated blood pressure per se, hypertensive and control subjects were recalled for reexamination 15 months after the original tests. Results indicated that those hypertensives in whom blood pressure had been lowered with antihypertensive drugs showed significant restoration of performance scores toward the levels of normotensive subjects. Hypertensives who had not received active treatment remained deficient as compared with controls. These results indicated that behavioral deficits in mild hypertension may be reversible consequences of the effects of elevated blood pressure on the central nervous system.