Blood pressure profile in freshly detected alcohol dependence syndrome patients

Background: Alcohol consumption and raised Blood pressure (BP) are among the top five risk factors responsible for the growing global non-communicable diseases (NCD) burden. The present study was undertaken to study the relation between alcohol dependence syndrome (ADS) and hypertension and the effect of reduction in alcohol consumption on BP. Methods: A prospective observational study was conducted at a tertiary care hospital over a period of 02 years from 08 Oct 2016 to 02 Oct 2018. A total of fifty freshly diagnosed ADS patients with BP in the pre- hypertensive or hypertensive range after the withdrawal subsided, were recruited into the study. The study group was subjected to repeated BP measurements, serum Gamma glutamyl transferase (GGT) measurements and status of alcohol consumption at 03, 06, 09 and 12 monthly intervals. The data was analyzed with ANOVA, Post-hoc Bonferroni and Pearson’s correlation tests. Results: There was a statistically significant mean decrease in systolic and diastolic blood pressure from the baseline till 03 months and between 03 months and 06 months of follow-up. The correlation between GGT levels and systolic and diastolic BP at different time intervals showed that there was a statistically non-significant weak positive correlation at baseline (r value=0.125) (p value= 0.38). During follow-up period there was a negative correlation between GGT and systolic BP at 12 months (r value= -0.40), which was statistically significant. The correlation between alcohol consumption and BP at different time intervals showed a moderate positive correlation at baseline with systolic BP(r value= 0.478), which was statistically significant. Conclusions: This study evaluated changes in blood pressure occurring during Alcohol dependence syndrome treatment. Observed decreases in systolic and diastolic blood pressure were substantially accounted for by reductions in alcohol consumption and occurred largely in the first 03 months of treatment. There was no significant fall in systolic blood pressure between 06 months and 01-year duration of follow-up.