My mother-in-law has been suffering from hypertension for a few years but has not been able to arrive at an optimum medication regimen that completely controls it. This results in BP spiking every now and again and then her current doctor advises her to take things like Natrilix SR on an SOS basis. For the past few months, she has been suffering from clinical depression and has had a couple of episodes of dropping Sodium levels which have caused a lot of other issues including loss of weight and general weakness. She is being treated by Dr Alok Sarin at Sitaram Bhartia for her depression with Prothiaden 75 mg daily and this seems to be working well with her having less number of ‘bad’ days than ‘good’ over the past four weeks of treatment. One of the side effects of this drug on her is a dryness of the mouth for which Dr Sarin has suggested that she drinks at least 2 – 2.5 ltrs of water a day. However, due to her fluctuating BP, she once again started taking Natrilix over the past 3 – 4 days and once again her Sodium level dropped to around 128. While this is not overly low, she gets very panicky and suffers anxiety attacks whenever she hears that her BP has risen (rises to 160/100 or so) or that her sodium level has dropped. For this her current doctor suggests that she take up to two teaspoons full of additional salt every day. However, this causes her further dryness in the mouth and again the BP rises! It’s a vicious cycle from which I would like to see her liberated. I would therefore like her to meet a good hypertension specialist who can through trial and error arrive at the best combination of medication for someone like her that does not interfere with her sodium levels or anything else while she is being treated for depression. I would truly appreciate your guidance in this matter.