EVALUATION OF THE ROLE OF ALCOHOL IN THE IMPAIRMENTS OF COGNITIVE FUNCTION AND EMOTIONAL SPHERE IN PATIENTS WITH HYPERTENSIVE DISEASE

The aim of the study was to examine the state of cognitive functions and emotional status depending on such lifestyle factor as alcohol consumption in hypertensive patients. Material and methods. We examined 102 patients with stage II essential hypertension (EH). The patients were divided into 3 groups according to the amount of alcohol consumed. Results. The study showed that among the patients with stage II essential hypertension who abused alcohol there prevailed cases with cognitive impairments, and there were more subjects with depression and moderate reactive anxiety. Conclusion. Consumption of large doses of alcohol increases cognitive impairment (CI). CI occurred 3.3 times as often among the patients with stage II EH who did not receive antihypertensive therapy or did not receive it on a regular basis in association with such lifestyle factor as alcohol abuse. Among the subjects with stage II EH who abused alcohol there was a greater proportion of those with depression and moderate reactive anxiety while in the moderate alcohol consumption group there were more cases with mild anxiety. It is advisable to examine cognitive functions and emotional status in patients with EH to identify those at risk for clinically significant cognitive impairments.