Rate of hypertension return after withdrawal of prolonged antihypertensive therapy

Summary 1. Among 160 patients who were withdrawn from antihypertensive therapy after long-term treatment, 42% had to be restarted on medication within 8 months of the withdrawal. Average time to return to medication was 16 weeks. 2. A significantly higher proportion of more severe hypertensive patients had to be restarted on drugs than of mild hypertensive patients (25% versus 75%). 3. For mild hypertensive patients, there were no differences in rate of return to drugs by age, race, sex, or obesity status. For the more severe hypertensive patients failure rate was considerably higher among the obese than the non-obese in each sex-race group.