Drug treatment of hypertension: compliance and adverse reactions in a cohort of hypertensive patients in a primary care setting

objectives. the primary was to assess the frequency of therapeutic non-compliance due to adrs in a cohort of patients with recently diagnosed systemic hypertension. the secondary objectives were to evaluate the blood pressure control during the follow-up in the whole cohort and in patients who received non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (nsaids). methods. a cohort of 73 recently diagnosed ambulatory hypertensive patients was followed-up for 6 months. validated questionnaires for identification of therapeutic scheme changes and adrs were applied monthly, during each medical visit. results. family physicians selected monotherapy in 79% of patients. the frequency of therapeutic non-compliance was 44%; non-compliance secondary to adr was 7%. systolic and diastolic blood pressure at the beginning of the study were 140 ± 15/90 ± 15 mm hg for the whole cohort. at the end of the study the figures were 130 ± 11/85 ± 6 (p < 0.001). patients receiving non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (nsaids) had higher blood pressure levels than the groups of patients not receiving such kind of drugs (134 ± 10 vs. 128 ± 8 mm hg, p = 0.025 and 88 ± 7 vs. 83 ± 5 mm hg, p = 0.05). conclusions. the drugs used in the present study as monotherapy are considered acceptable choices for hypertension treatment. the frequency of therapeutic non-compliance was within the limits reported in the literature and the frequency of therapeutic non-compliance secondary to adrs in this cohort was lower than that reported in the literature. higher blood pressure was found in the group of patients receiving nsaids.