Effect of Abdominal Compression on Blood Pressure of Patients with Postural Hypotension Receiving Antipsychotics/Antidepressants

Abstract

Postural hypotension is caused due to neurogenic and cardiogenic origin is given more attention, but postural hypotension is very commonly seen among patients receiving antipsychotics and antidepressants. Getting the side effects of the medications is one of the factors leading for poor compliance of the treatment. This study aims to investigate effectiveness of Abdominal Compression in managing the patients with postural hypotension receiving antipsychotics /antidepressants. The methodology adopted for the study involved fifteen patients with postural hypotension receiving antipsychotics/antidepressants attending Psychiatry OPD selected by purposive sampling. Patients were assessed by structured interview, orthostatic grading scale, medical records for medications details and direct measurement of blood pressure in supine, sitting and standing position using mercury sphygmomanometer. The results obtained from the study reveal that abdominal compression has significant impact on the blood pressure of patient with postural hypotension at p = 0.05, and is effective in reducing the postural fall in systolic and diastolic blood pressure. The study demonstrates that abdominal compression has clinically as well as statistically significant beneficial effect on blood pressure of patients with postural hypotension receiving antipsychotics/ antidepressant in different variation.