Reserpine and Extracellular-Fluid Volume

Abstract

IT is a well established observation that Rauwolfia therapy causes an increase in body weight in some hypertensive subjects. Certain clinical observations have suggested that this weight increase might be the result of fluid retention. McGregor and Segel,¹ Perera,² Smirk and McQueen³ and Marley and Pare⁴ have described edema, breathlessness and raised venous pressure after Rauwolfia therapy for hypertension; Marley and Pare also reported a weight increase and a fall in hematocrit in nonhypertensive subjects on reserpine. Sarwer-Foner⁵ and Ferguson⁶ have noted edema in psychiatric patients given reserpine, and Greenblatt⁷ found that the edema of premenstrual tension became more pronounced . . .