The lower the diastolic pressure, the greater the improvement in well-being. That is one of the findings in a sub-study of the Hypertension Optimal Treatment (HOT) study. In that research, 922 patients were assigned to increasingly intensive therapy aimed at reducing their diastolic pressure to 90, 85, or 80 mmHg.

Patients who succeeded in reducing their diastolic pressure only to 90 mmHg did not report as much improvement in well-being as those whose pressure was reduced to 80 or 85. Cardiac symptoms and dizziness improved in all groups, and headaches were reduced. Patients in the group with the most intensive treatment who succeeded in reducing their pressure to 80 experienced some increase in medication side effects such as swollen ankles and dry cough.

The authors concluded that, although more intensive therapy may provoke an increase in side effects, it is nonetheless associated with improvements in patients' well-being. It appears that patients were willing to trade off a slight increase in side effects for the overall improvement that they experienced from the greater reduction in blood pressure.

Source:

Wiklund I, Halling K, Ryden-Bergsten T, Fletcher A. Does lowering the blood pressure improve the mood? Quality-of-life results from the Hypertension Optimal Treatment (HOT) study. Blood Pressure 1997 Nov;6(6):357-64. Abs.