High blood pressure and psychiatric disorder in general practice

A programme for the control of hypertension has been started in general practice with the principal aim of finding the most effective way of identifying and keeping patients with high blood pressure under continuing control. One objective is to determine the psychiatric state of hypertensive patients in the programme and this paper reports these results.There was no significant difference between the percentage of psychiatric patients in a hypertensive group and a control group. There was no relationship between blood pressure recorded at the initial clinic and the psychiatric state. In both hypertensive and control groups, patients who were on hypertensive treatment at the initial clinic were more likely to be ;psychiatric' than those who were not on treatment; this appears to be less likely to occur if the hypertension is controlled.