Assessing patient wellness: new perspectives on quality of life and compliance

Hypertension remains a major contemporary health problem in the United States despite being one of the most prevalent chronic diseases for which treatment is readily available. In spite of increased public awareness, active preventative campaigns, and notable progress in antihypertensive pharmacologic therapies, many patients remain untreated or inadequately treated. The reasons for this relative management failure are complex and multifactorial, and include the effects that pharmacologic agents have on quality of life. A patient's overall level of well-being and perception of functional capacity may be more sensitive to the pharmacologic effects of antihypertensive agents than previously recognized. Compliance, frequently related to a patient's sense of deterioration in quality of life secondary to medical treatment, may well be the ultimate determinate of success with any antihypertensive regimen. Therefore, it is essential that clinicians implement pharmacologic therapy that balances biophysiologic needs with quality-of-life considerations to achieve the most successful and viable patient outcomes.