Hypertension in Harare Hospital out-patients: drugs prescribed, drugs taken and control achieved.

Patient-retained records supplemented by patieni interviews were used to evaluate hypertension management at Harare Hospital. One hundred and one successive hypertensive out-patients were studied. In over a third of patients diagnosis had been established during medical examination fa an unrelated problem. Only one third of 431 recorded 'on treatment' diastolic blood pressures were less than 100 mm Hg, and one fifth were greater than 119 mm Hg. Thiazides, Methl-dopa and Reserpine were the most commonly prescribed antihypertensives. A step-wise approach to management was evident where two drugs were used, but the choice of a third a fourth drug showed great variation. Thirty pa