The main purpose of this study is to measure the prevalence of cognitive impairments among hypertensive outpatients in the Hypertension Department of Cardiology National Institute.

A sample of 90 consecutive hypertensive outpatients was evaluated from the cohort of 217 hypertensive patients population in treatment. They were assessed by the same PhD psychiatrist using the Mini Mental State Examination.

Prospective study of a sample of 90 consecutive hypertensive outpatients was evaluated from the cohort of 217 hypertensive patients population in treatment. They were assessed by the same psychiatrist, using the Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE).

The main question, proposed by this study, if arterial hypertension causes cognitive impairment, has a negative answer, for it was observed that for each mercury millimeter increased in the Diastolic Blood Pressure (DBP), occurs a downfall of only 0.02 in the MMSE, but when adjusted according to the age of subjects, the association among DBP and the MMSE score disappears. Statistical analysis included the t test of Student or Mann-Whitney, qui-square test or Fisher's exact test and linear regression.

This study did not show any causal correlation between hypertension and cognitive impairment. According to numberless articles, the MMEE instrument demonstrated in this study, great bias associated with illiteracy and formal education.