Comparison of drug and behavioral treatments of essential hypertension.

Studied 36 hypertensives (aged 35–60 yrs) twice/wk for 8 wks under 1 of the 4 following conditions: blood pressure (BP) biofeedback, Benson's relaxation response, drug treatment, and a control procedure consisting of the home self-monitoring of BP. Extensive baseline, treatment, and follow-up assessments were obtained of home BP recordings and psychophysiological variables in the laboratory (heart rate, BP, skin conductance, breathing rate, and frontalis muscle tension). Ss also completed psychological tests that included the MMPI and Jenkins Activity Survey. Drug treatment (main diuretics) was found to be markedly superior to all of the behavioral procedures in the regulation of BP in home recordings. With regard to laboratory measures of BP, biofeedback was as effective as drugs and more effective than relaxation or the self-monitoring control procedure in lowering diastolic but not systolic BP. In addition, neither the relaxation response nor the control procedure had any effect on the regulation of BP. (29 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)