1298

Nephrotic syndrome2

and rash and/or fever and loss of

taste3.4 have been reported after captopril therapy, but aphthous ulcers in the mouth have not been previously described. The persistence of the ulcers until captopril was withdrawn, their recurrence on rechallenge with captopril, and the absence of any other obvious cause make it likely that captopril caused the aphthous ulcers in the mouth in this patient. Department of Medicine, University of Natal, Congella, 4013 Natal, South Africa

the whole spectrum of compliance bias may be related to the level of suspiciousness. If other investigators can confirm our findings, suspiciousness will need to be considered in the design of clinical trials on antihypertensive drugs. M. W. O’HALLORAN

Queen

R. ZACEST C. G. BARROW L. L. WILSON

Hospital,

Woodville, 5011 Adelaide, South Australia

Y. K. SEEDAT

ANAPHYLACTOID REACTION TO N-ACETYLCYSTEINE

SUSPICIOUSNESS TRAIT: A FACTOR IN ANTIHYPERTENSIVE DRUG TRIALS?

SiR,—The problem of dropouts from clinical trials is poorly understood, but Caldwell et a1.5 have suggested that personality factors may be significant in patients who discontinue antihypertensive treatment. We have used the questionnaire of Cattell et a1.6 to determine if personality factors show a bias in patients who stop taking their antihypertensive drugs. 70 consecutive hypertensive patients who presented to the outpatient clinic and who were deemed suitable for medical treatment participated in this survey. They all completed form C of the personality questionnaire before being put on antihypertensive drugs. Over a treatment period of twelve months, 13 dropped out for a variety of reasons. Scores for all sixteen factors in the dropouts and in those who continued treatment were compared by the Mann-Whitney U test, allowance being made for the multiplicity of comparisons. A two-tailed probablity table was used to obtain the p value. Only scores for factor L (the measure of the trustfulnesssuspiciousness trait) were different, being higher (p

Diagnostic aids in pancreatic cancer.

1298 Nephrotic syndrome2 and rash and/or fever and loss of taste3.4 have been reported after captopril therapy, but aphthous ulcers in the mouth ha...
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