COMPARISON OF PHYSICAL EXERCISE AND MUSCLE-RELAXATION TRAINING IN THETREATMENT OF MILD ESSENTIAL-HYPERTENSION

Forty-five patients with mild essential hypertension, diastolic blood pressure (DBP) between 90 and 104 mmHg, were randomly allocated to thr ee different treatment groups: relaxation, isotonic physical exercise or placebo. Outcome measures included blood pressure readings and hear t rate (HR) in the clinic and cardiovascular responsiveness (mental ar ithmetic and isotonic exercise). The study schedule consisted of four baseline sessions, 8 weeks of treatment and 6 months follow-up. Relaxa tion and physical exercise were superior to the placebo procedure in r educing blood pressure (BP) at post-treatment for systolic blood press ure (SEP) and DBP and at follow-up for SEP. No significant differences were found between the experimental procedures. However, relaxation w as superior to the exercise programme at follow-up for HR. None of the subjects had their medication changed at post-treatment. However, aft er 6 months follow-up, three placebo subjects were started on antihype rtensive drugs. In contrast, none of the exercise and relaxation group subjects were placed on medication.