Arterial hypertension in schizophrenia as a model of benign transformation of somatic pathology

AIM: To detect characteristics of arterial hypertension in schizophrenia. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The course of arterial hypertension and structural-functional alterations of the left ventricle were studied in the group of hypertensive schizophrenics and hypertensive patients without schizophrenia. RESULTS: Arterial hypertension in schizophrenics occurs less frequently, is not so high, is associated with insignificant structural-functional rearrangement of the left ventricle. This is true for cases when arterial hypertension onset precedes onset of psychosis when somatic disease does not combine with atherosclerosis. Incidence rate of hypertension diagnosis, mean levels of pressure and structural-functional indices of the left ventricle (for the first degree of arterial hypertension) for patients given and not given vasoactive psychotropic drugs do not differ significantly. CONCLUSION: Arterial hypertension in schizophrenia is characterized by benign transformation as seen from less prevalence and severity of the disease in mild structural-functional alterations of the left ventricle than in population of somatic patients.