From the publishers of The New England Journal of Medicine

Save time and stay informed. Our physician-editors offer you clinical perspectives on key research and news.

  1. Home>
  2. Specialties>
  3. Women's Health>
  4. Summary and Comment

What Is the Relation Between Hypertension and Dementia?

As progress is made in the prevention and treatment of dementia, early detection becomes more important. This study was undertaken to determine whether early predictors of cognitive impairment could be identified. The initial 1083 subjects (mean age, 70.2) were enrolled in a British hypertension treatment trial in 1983-84 and then contacted 9 to 12 years later. Of the survivors, 58.6 percent (387) participated in the full follow-up; 66 percent were female. Cognitive function was assessed using the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE).

After correcting for baseline cognition, the state of cognition at follow-up was negatively correlated with increasing age, less decline in systolic blood pressure, family history of dementia, abstinence from alcohol, and lower premorbid IQ.

Comment: Although the MMSE is a rather gross measure of cognitive status, these findings reinforce what we know: People who are older, don't control their hypertension, and come from families with a history of dementia are more likely to experience cognitive decline than older people without these risk factors. This is an important article because it helps clinicians to focus on treatable causes of dementia. Neither clinicians nor patients can affect family history or growing older, but this study provides further support for clinicians to convince patients to adhere to antihypertensive treatments and, when appropriate, to discuss the possible benefits of moderate alcohol consumption.

— NL Stotland

Published in Journal Watch Women's Health August 7, 2000

Citation(s):

Cervilla JA et al. Long-term predictors of cognitive outcome in a cohort of older people with hypertension. Br J Psychiatry 2000 Jul 177 66-71.

Your Remark:

Reader Remarks are intended to encourage lively discussion of clinical topics with your peers in the medical community. We ask that you keep your remarks to a reasonable length, and we reserve the right to withhold publication of remarks that do not meet this standard.

The editors of Journal Watch may respond to Reader Remarks, but we cannot promise to respond to a particular remark.

Fields marked with an * are required.

Name as you'd like it to appear:

Submitting a comment indicates you have read and agreed to the remark guidelines and declare:*

PRIVACY: We will not use your email address, submitted for a comment, for any other purpose nor sell, rent, or share your e-mail address with any third parties. Please see our Privacy Policy.

 

CLEAR erases anything you've added in any part of the form. CONTINUE allows you to check your entire post (and edit it if necessary) before submitting.

To ensure that your Reader Remark is not formatted as one long paragraph, precede new paragraphs with either a blank line or an indentation.

Copyright © 2000. Massachusetts Medical Society. All rights reserved.