Psychosomatic Medicine, Vol 49, Issue 3 264-273, Copyright © 1987 by American Psychosomatic Society

ORIGINAL ARTICLES

Relaxation training for essential hypertension at the worksite: II. The poorly controlled hypertensive

WS Agras, CB Taylor, HC Kraemer, MA Southam and JA Schneider

This article reports the findings of a study designed to evaluate the long-term effectiveness of an industry-based relaxation training program in the treatment of hypertensives whose blood pressures were not well controlled by antihypertensive medication. Following a three-stage screening process, 137 participants were randomly allocated to either relaxation training (RT) or to blood pressure monitoring (BPM) at two worksites. Participants continued to receive medical care from their primary physicians during the course of the study. The advantage for participants receiving RT, in terms of mean blood pressure changes, was modest and of short duration. However, a larger proportion of participants in the RT group came into good control (blood pressures below 90 mm Hg) than in the BPM group following treatment (69.4% vs 41.5%, p less than 0.001). This advantage continued to 24 months' follow-up (63.9% vs 47.7%, p less than 0.05). At 30 months' follow-up there was no significant difference between the groups (75.0% vs 70.8%). Within-group analyses revealed that the BPM group also achieved significant blood pressure lowering which was maintained during the study. The largest initial difference between the two groups was for individuals whose entry diastolic blood pressures were most out of control despite several years of pharmacologic treatment. No difference was found between the two groups in the prescription of antihypertensive medication.