Mortality in patients who have their antihypertensive therapy changed.

Medical records were examined for 1935 patients who presented sequentially to a hypertension clinic between 1971 and 1981. Patients were classified according to whether they were on a β-blocker, methyldopa, a potassium-losing diuretic, or whether they had discontinued any of these treatments. Age-standardized mortality rates were calculated and the relative risks of stopping compared with non-stopping were computed