Antihypertensive treatment and depressive symptoms in Chinese middle‐aged and older hypertensive adults: A population‐based longitudinal study

Hypertension is a risk factor for depressive disorders. Although the benefits of lowering blood pressure on the subsequent depressive disorders are supported by biological interpretation, the effect of antihypertensive therapies on depressive disorders is not clear. This study aimed to assess whether blood-pressure-lowering treatment have a protective effect on subsequent depressive symptoms in China.We used data from the nationally representative survey, including 2428 hypertensive participants free from depressive symptoms at baseline in 2011 to 2012. We assessed the depressive symptoms based on the 10-item Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression scale. We conducted Cox proportional hazards regression models to examine the effect of antihypertensive treatment on the incidence of depressive symptoms in 2011 to 2015.In the total sample, all the models resulted in nonsignificant results and an estimated 8% reduction in risk (95% CI, 0·76-1·12) in the model adjusted for all covariates for the antihypertensive treatment takers with blood pressure controlled. In the group of urban residents, the antihypertensive treatment takers with blood pressure controlled had lower odds (HR: 0.68; 95% CI, 0·49-0·96) of depressive disorders.The protective effect of the antihypertensive therapies might be relative to not only lowering blood pressure per se but also the management of hypertension. We proposed the early intervention to achieve the long-term protective effect of being antihypertensive and the supply of effective and collaborative care of hypertension and depression.