The literature was reviewed to determine whether failure of older antihypertensive drugs to suppress the early morning increase of blood pressure was responsible, in part, for the less than satisfactory rate of reduction in cardiovascular mortality rates in the United States. The authors found that neither the old nor the new antihypertensive drugs altered the 24-hour blood pressure curve pattern, although long-acting drugs did show continued effect at the end of the 24-hour period when compared with placebo. The efficacy of these drugs most likely lies with their blood pressure lowering and other ancillary effects and not with pattern changes. More importantly, examination of new data (1989) shows that the rate of decline in death due to diseases of the heart has exceeded that for cerebrovascular diseases. Our overall health care effort may be more successful than we thought.