[Evaluation of ten years of pharmacovigilance of antihypertensive drugs in the Toulouse University Regional Hospital Center (1981-1990)].

The eighties were characterized by the introduction of angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEI) and calcium channel blockers (CCB) in the treatment of arterial hypertension. The present study investigates the side effects of antihypertensive drugs in the Toulouse University Hospital (France) between 1981 and 1990. Most of the side effects involved ACEI (45%), CCB (22%) and diuretics (18%). Central antihypertensive agents and beta-blocking drugs were involved in 8 and 9% of side effects respectively. During these 10 years, 197 side effects were reported in our hospital (3300 beds). Some of them were found more frequently: renal insufficiency (15%) or cough (9%) with ACEI, constipation (3%), gingivitis (1%) or lower limb oedema (4.5%) with CCB, hemolytic or autoimmune anemia (2.5%) and confusional state (1.5%) with central antihypertensive agents, nightmares (1.5%) with propranolol. The most frequently side effects were dermatological (20%), hydroelectrolytic (10%) and neuropsychiatric (9.6%) disturbances. In spite of the methodological problems of this kind of study (retrospective evaluation, under-notification of the side effects and different scores of imputability), these data indicate the most frequently observed side effects of antihypertensive agents during the eighties. It allows to estimate an approximate frequency of these side effects: among the antihypertensive drugs, CCB and diuretics seems the less frequently involved in the occurrence of reported side effects.