Quality of life and its impact on hypertensive patients.

Noncompliance of hypertensive patients with their therapy is a frequent problem. Although the basis of this noncompliance is multifactorial, it is largely related to deterioration in a patient's quality of life produced by the commonly prescribed antihypertensive agents. Quality of life is a collective term that encompasses multiple components of a person's social and mental status. Simply stated, it is the ability of a person to function normally in society, as perceived by the person. There is increasing evidence that social and behavioral science techniques can be used to quantify the effects of antihypertensive agents on a patient's quality of life. Thus, in determining the most appropriate antihypertensive program for an individual patient, physicians will now be able to add impact of the agent on quality of life as a dimension in addition to the more common triad of efficacy, cost, and serious side effects.