Factors affecting the reporting of symptoms by hypertensive patients

Patients diagnosed as hypertensive have a high complaint rate, both on and off treatment and this has been postulated to be due to either their disease process, their being labelled as hypertensive, or to their treatment. Data from 6637 hypertensive patients being entered into clinical trials in general practice have been analysed to determine the relationship between the patient's age, sex, concurrent illnesses, concurrent medication, whether they were on antihypertensive treatment and the frequency of their reporting symptoms. The analysis was conducted using a multivariate technique. The frequency of reporting symptoms was greater in females than males. Those receiving antihypertensive therapy reported more symptoms than those who were not. This was notable with those receiving a beta-adrenoceptor blocker (47% of such patients complaining). Patients receiving concurrent medication were more likely to report a symptom than those not (48 compared to 37%). This was particularly noticeable if central nervous system-acting drugs were prescribed where the prevalence of symptoms was 52%. Patients already on antihypertensive treatment were more likely to be taking other medication for other conditions (37 vs 31%) than those not receiving antihypertensive treatment. Females were more likely to be taking other tablets than males (38 compared to 30%). The only symptoms which were less prevalent in those receiving treatment were headache, dizziness and breathlessness. All other symptoms were increased or unchanged in patients on antihypertensive therapy. This study indicates that present treatment for hypertension produces a high complaint rate from patients and that, when patients so complain, the possibility of their symptoms being due to their concurrent medication should be considered.