Abstract
Assessment of blood pressure in hypertensive patients: Study of assessment procedure influences. - Systolic and diastolic blood pressure of thirty two patients with essential hypertension were assessed during twenty one-twenty eight days period. Sixteen of three patients followed the normal procedure of assessment of blood pressure in medical settings whereas the levels of blood pressure of the other sixteen patients were observed considering psychological variables, usually not very well specified, that seem to affect both systolic and diastolic blood pressure data. Supportting this hypothesis, results showed that aproximately three quarters of the patients assessed through the experimental procedure and only one quarter of the patients assessed through the tisual medical procedure reduced their levels of blood pressure at the end of the period; futher, considering the mean scores of each group in blood pressure, only the experimental group showed significant reductions and the differences found between groups were also statiscally significant. Data seem to suggest that assessment of blood pressure under the usual conditions of medical settings tend to over consider the values of patients' systolic and diastolic blood pressure with negative implications regarding the pharmacological treatment of three patients.
