This study examined the effects of age and hypertension on WAIS performance. Previous studies have reported that hypertension adversely affects cognitive functioning, but few have considered the influence of hypertension on discrete age groups. Hypertension was found to be negatively associated with WAIS Verbal scores for younger (21 to 39 years) but not older (45 to 65 years) subjects. Further, younger subjects attained higher WAIS Performance scores than did older subjects. Medication history was not associated with performance levels for hypertensives, nor was performance of controls influenced by whether or not they were tested while on a diuretic. When WAIS Performance scores were analyzed for subjects matched on WAIS Verbal scores across age (21 to 39 vs 45 to 65 years) and blood pressure (normotensive vs hypertensive), a significant age by blood pressure interaction was found. The effect of blood pressure on Performance scores was found to be greater for younger than for older subjects. The association between plasma renin activity (PRA) level and WAIS Performance scores was also examined. Contrary to previous findings PRA was not related to Performance scores. The results are discussed in the context of previous hypertension research and their implications for comparisons across age levels.

Young adult (X- = 29) and middle aged (X- =50) hypertensive and normotensive subjects were compared with respect to seven neuropsychological test scores derived from tests on the Halstead-Reitan battery. Age main effects, with inferior performance for the middle aged subjects, were observed for the localization and time portions of the Tactile Performance Test (TPT) and for the Trail Making A test. The multivariate age effect was significant for the composite of seven scores. A multivariate blood pressure main effect was obtained and main effect blood pressure was significant for the category test; hypertensives made more errors than normotensives. A blood pressure by age interaction was observed for finger tapping scores and the TPT-Memory scores with larger differences between hypertensives and normotensives for the younger than for the middle aged group. Results were discussed in terms of previous studies of age and hypertension with the WAIS, the Primary Mental Abilities Test and serial reaction time measures. The poor prediction of hypertensive status from individual neuropsychological test scores was emphasized and readers were cautioned not to conclude that essential hypertensives, as a group, can be characterized as brain damaged.

This study examined the effects of essential hypertension on measures of anxiety and depression for two age groups of hypertensive (free from hypertension-related pathology and/or cardiovascular disease) and normotensive subjects. Hypertensive subjects had significantly higher State Anxiety scores and Zung Depression scores than did normotensive subjects. These differences between the blood pressure groups were due largely to the scores of the younger hypertensive subjects. The results of the present study are consistent with previous results from our laboratory that have found that younger hypertensives differed (relative to controls) from middle aged hypertensives on measures, such as, symptoms reported on the Cornell Medical Index and WAIS Performance scores. The results of the present study were discussed within the context of age associated differences in response to hypertension and factors that might account for these differences.

This study compared young and old hypertensive and normotensive subjects with respect to the number of symptoms reported on the Cornell Medical Index (CMI). The hypertensive subjects had more physical and psychological complaints than did the normotensive subjects. Differences in symptoms reported between the blood pressure groups were not concentrated in one specific category (e.g., cardiovascular) but were distributed over several categories. Age did not influence the number of symptoms reported for either blood pressure group. The results were discussed in the context of the lack of specificity of symptoms reported by hypertensive subjects, and to what extent reported symptoms on the CMI are influenced by knowledge of one's blood pressure status.

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