Abstract
The objective of this study is to compare the effects of muscle relaxation on blood pressure (BP) and heart rate (HR) in medicated and unmedicated essential hypertensives using as dependent measures the ambulatory blood pressure monitoring (ABPM). Forty patients were randomly allocated to four different groups: relaxation medicated, relaxation unmedicated, control medicated and control unmedicated. Relaxation groups were superior to the control groups in reducing BP at post-treatment for systolic blood pressure (SBP) and HR and, at follow-up, for SBP and diastolic blood pressure (DBP). Relaxation training is of value in significantly reducing BP in medicated and unmedicated hypertensives and HR in unmedicated.
