ABSTRACT
A prospective investigation was designed to test whether regular elicitation of the relaxation response might lower blood-pressures in hypertensive patients who were maintained on constant antihypertensive therapy. The regular elicitation of the relaxation response may, therefore, have usefulness in the management of hypertensive subjects who are already on drug therapy. The use of the relaxation response may influence the economics of the therapy of hypertension since it is practised at no cost other than time. Continual elicitation of the emergency reaction with its resultant increased sympathetic-nervous-system activity has been implicated in the pathogenesis of systemic arterial hypertension. The long-term effects and the relative preventive and therapeutic value of the relaxation response in hypertension and hypertensive disease remain to be established. If the response does have value, it will have a profound effect on the economics of the therapy of hypertension and its sequelae since it is practised at no cost other than time.
