DRINKING HISTORY IS RELATED TO PERSISTENT BLOOD-PRESSURE DYSREGULATION IN POSTWITHDRAWAL ALCOHOLICS

We have previously demonstrated that alcoholics with transitory (<72 h r) elevations in blood pressure (BP) during withdrawal continue to sho w residual cardiovascular dysregulation up to 4 weeks of abstinence. T he present study replicates and extends these findings. Alcoholic inpa tients were divided into three subgroups (ns = 14) based on BP during the first 72 hr of withdrawal: transitory hypertensives (tHTs; BP > 16 0/95 mm Hg), transitory borderline hypertensives (tBHs; 140/90 less th an or equal to BP < 160/95), and normotensives (NTs; all BPs < 140/90) . All patients had normal resting pressures after 72 hr of withdrawal. At 3-4 weeks postadmission, the alcoholics and 14 nonalcoholic contro ls (CONTs) were tested at rest and during a 5-min handgrip task. The t HTs showed an exaggerated systolic and diastolic BP response to handgr ip compared with NTs and CONTs, with tBHs intermediate (ps < 0.05). Dr inking history showed the tHTs had the highest reported level of alcoh ol consumption and severity of withdrawal symptoms (ps < 0.05). Regres sion analyses indicated that consumption of hard liquor was the variab le most predictive of admission BPs; further, parental history of hype rtension potentiated this relationship for systolic BP. Age and consum ption of nicotine and caffeine were not significant predictors of admi ssion BP. The results suggest a persistent cardiovascular dysregulatio n in alcoholics showing transient hypertensive withdrawal BPs. These a lcoholics may be at increased risk for future alcohol-related cardiova scular disorder.