Effects of Treatment on Morbidity in Hypertension: Results in Patients with Diastolic Blood Pressures Averaging 115 through 129 mm Hg

The first of three publications describing the results of the Veterans Administration Cooperative Study on Antihypertensive Agents. This is the work for which Freis received the Lasker Award. For this double-blind study, some patients presenting with severe hypertension at VA Hospitals were administered a regimen of several antihypertensive agents. Patients were excluded if they had curable forms of hypertension. Due to a tremendous difference in morbidity and mortality between control and treated patients, the study was terminated after only 18 months for a subgroup of patients that originally had an average diastolic blood pressure of 155 through 129 mm Hg.