17 patients (40 +/- 9 years) with essential hypertension were included in the study. A monotherapy of 120, 160 or 240 mg propranolol per day was administered orally according to the antihypertensive effect. Four weeks after treatment, blood pressure and heart rate showed a statistically significant decrease and remained unchanged over a period of six months. Plasma renin activity decreased significantly from 5.7 +/- 6.3 ng/ml/h at the beginning of the study to 1.8 +/- 1.3 ng/ml/h after 4 weeks. 5 months later however plasma renin activity increased again to 5.0 +/- 0.9 ng/ml/h. The difference was statistically significant. From 17 patients 7 (41%) had lower levels of plasma renin activity after 6 months treatment when compared with pretreatment values. In only 3 patients (18%) was plasma renin activity lower after 6 months than after four weeks. We conclude that the increase in plasma renin activity is a reactive mechanism to the reduced blood pressure under long-term conditions. The decrease of plasma renin activity in short-term treatment of essential hypertension is not a mechanism responsible for the antihypertensive effect of propranolol during long-term treatment.