Memory Function - Effects of Different Antihypertensive Drugs

Psychomotor performance and antihypertensive treatment.

“…In addition, the control group size was inadequate. A mild but consistent deficit in short and long term memory was also reported in hypertensive subjects (n = 13) treated with atenolol in a 12 week prospective double-blind study comparing atenolol with enalapril [38].…”

“…In contrast to these studies, no improvement was seen on several memory tasks (based on the outline proposed by Randt et al [52] in 25 hypertensive subjects (age range 37-72 years) treated with enalapril [38,53]. Again, only the memory aspect of psychomotor performance was measured and the possibility of a type I error cannot be excluded, especially as changes in other measures of psychomotor performance were not assessed.…”

The Effect of Antihypertensive Treatment on the Quality of Later Years

“…ACE inhibitors have been shown not to cause fatigue, cognitive or memory impairment, depression, weakness, or sexual dysfunction and as such compare well with other antihypertensive agents (Blumenthal et al 1990;Croog et al 1986;Fletcher et al 1990;Richardson & Wyke 1988). It is possible that at least some of the relativ~ benefit may be related to a mood elevating effect with ACE inhibitors (Zubenko & Nixon 1984; but see Callender et al 1983) or to improved alertness with these drugs (Olajide & Lader 1985).…”

“…Similarly, no difference was detected across a wide range of self-reported psychological distress between ateno101 and placebo (Wassertheil-Smoller et al 1991). However, when compared with other agents such as angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors, thiazides or calcium-channel blockers in trials which were not placebo-controlled, ,a-blockers compared poorly in their effects on memory performance (Blumenthal et al 1990;Lichter et al 1986;Richardson & Wyke 1988;Soloman et al 1983). Although it is generally reported that the effects of memory impairment, even when producing major changes in test results, are not apparent to the majority of the subjects themselves.…”

The effects of anti‐hypertensive medication on learning and memory.

“…In the literature which does exist on this subject, the evidence is inconclusive. On the one hand, a few studies have reported impairments with ,-adrenoceptor blockers, particularly in verbal memory (see Richardson & Wyke, 1988, for a review), with drugrelated decrements in performance among hypertensive patients found in both between-subject designs (Hartley et al, 1983;Solomon et al, 1983) and within-subject designs (e.g. Lichter et al, 1986;Steiner et al, 1990).…”