QUALITY-OF-LIFE BEFORE AND DURING ANTIHYPERTENSIVE TREATMENT - A COMPARATIVE-STUDY OF CELIPROLOL AND ATENOLOL

Background: The well-being of hypertensive patients may be adversely a ffected by the disease itself, its complications, and other concomitan t processes such as anxiety, sedation, and side effects of the prescri bed drugs. Some recently developed antihypertensive agents have been s uggested to be devoid of these deleterious effects on well-being expre ssed as quality of life. Object: We compared the effect on quality of life of a standard cardioselective beta-blocker atenolol to the effect of celiprolol as a representative of a new class of selective beta-bl ockers with vasodilatory properties. One-hundred-thirty-two patients w ith mild to moderate hypertension were eligible to enter a 28-week dou ble-blind parallel-group study, consisting of a 4-week run-in period o n placebo and a 24-week period on dosage-adjusted treatment with eithe r atenolol or celiprolol. Results: Both systolic and diastolic blood p ressure were assessed, as was quality of life perception by a selected test battery including the Quality of Life Questionnaire of Bulpitt a nd Fletcher [1990]. During celiprolol treatment, supine blood pressure fell from 167/101 (range 120 - 200/95 - 116) to 150/92 mm Hg (p < 0.0 001). This antihypertensive effect was at least as good with celiprolo l as with atenolol. Quality of life perception was comparable for the 2 drugs, although some adverse effects were more frequent during ateno lol than during celiprolol, particularly after prolonged treatment. Al so patient compliance was better for celiprolol than for atenolol. Con clusions: Our results show that the selective beta-blocker with vasodi latory property celiprolol is at least as effective as atenolol and th at it has additional advantage in terms of enhancement of some quality of life variables.