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Summary
Recruitment for the Medical Research Council trial of treatment for mild hypertension is now complete; 190 centres, mostly group general practices, are involved, distributed widely throughout England, Scotland and Wales. Altogether, 17,361 patients are participating and have completed a total of 45,570personyears of observation. Of people invited 74% attended for screening. Results suggest that 10% of the middle-aged population may have undiagnosed hypertension. The active drugs used were bendrofluazide or propranolol. Compliance was satisfactory: nonetheless, the 5-year cumulative percentage of patients needing supplementary therapy to reach goal pressure (phase V diastolic <90 mmHg) was about 34% for men and about 24% for women. Propranolol was less effective in older than in -younger patients. Five-year cumulative percentages of men withdrawn from randomly allocated treatment because of adverse drug reactions were 17% on bendrofluazide and 16% on propranolol. Corresponding figures for women were 13% and 18% respectively. Seasonal fluctuations in both systolic and diastolic blood pressure are shown; these are present in each age, sex and treatment group.