Psychiatric complications of antihypertensive medications.

Psychiatric complications of antihypertensive medications have been identified in the literature primarily in case reports. Most other studies to date have suffered from major design flaws. Side effects seriously complicate the treatment of hypertensive patients and no doubt decrease compliance. There are significant interactions between psychotropic medications and antihypertensive drugs. The literature is reviewed, and the implications for clinical practice of psychiatric side effects of antihypertensive treatment and of psychotropic-antihypertensive interactions are discussed.