The treatment of hypertension in older patients: a double-blind, between-patient study, in previously treated patients comparing a diuretic, a beta-receptor antagonist, and their fixed combination.

Six hundred and forty-eight previously treated hypertensive patients, with a mean age of 64 years, were studied. In spite of treatment over a mean period of 18 months, their blood pressure was inadequately controlled, with an initial mean level of 180/108 mm Hg. Previous treatment which had consisted of either a diuretic alone, a beta-receptor antagonist alone or these two drugs in combination was discontinued and patients were randomly allocated, in double-blind manner, to a 6-week treatment course of cyclopenthiazide (Navidrex) or sustained release oxprenolol (Slow-Trasicor) or a fixed combination of these two compounds (Trasidrex) with the aim of lowering the diastolic pressure to less than 100 mm Hg. Blood pressure was substantially reduced in each treatment group, with the lowest final pressures in the group treated with the fixed combination, where 87% of the patients completing the study reached the target level of a diastolic pressure of less than 100 mm Hg. Very few side-effects of treatment were reported with any of these compounds. The results from this study suggest that these compounds in their standard dosage range are useful and safe antihypertensive agents in older patients. In those patients where blood pressure control with a single agent was proving difficult, the transfer to one or two tablets daily of the fixed combination (Trasidrex) produced a very satisfactory outcome in the large majority of cases.