AN EVALUATION OF THERAPEUTIC RESULTS IN ESSENTIAL HYPERTENSION

Abstract

There is convincing evidence that a specific therapy for essential hypertension is not yet available.¹If this is true, the continual appearance of articles reporting successful treatment means that many of these favorable reports arise from investigative fallacies. Certain fallacies that lead to erroneous reports of symptomatic relief in essential hypertension have been discussed in a previous communication.²The present paper emphasizes factors which, unrecognized or frequently disregarded, seem to have led to incorrect conclusions regarding the reduction of blood pressure in essential hypertension. THE GENERAL SOURCES OF MISTAKES IN THE INTERPRETATION OF BLOOD PRESSURE REDUCTIONS The individual fallacies to be discussed appear to spring from a source of error, provision against which is important in any research—the inadequate studies of controls. Many studies on the treatment of essential hypertension have lacked a sufficiently long and carefully regulated period of observation prior to the administration of therapy. This