The relationships between blood pressure and several personality and traditional risk factors were examined in a sample of black and white adolescent males who were enrolled in a health science course in Tampa, Florida. Although a number of personality and traditional risk factors significantly predicted elevated blood pressure for both groups of adolescent males, suppressed anger and weight were the major independent predictors. Among black and white males, those who generally harbored grudges and suppressed their anger had higher systolic blood pressure; diastolic blood pressure was higher only for the white males who frequently held in their angry feelings. Weight and excessive salt usage significantly predicted both elevated systolic and diastolic pressures for white males, while these variables significantly predicted systolic pressures for black males. Familial factors were found to be independent predictors of systolic and diastolic blood pressure only for the white adolescent males. A further examination of the relationship between the frequency that anger is suppressed shows that the shape of the curves relating anger-in scores to blood pressure appears to have a 'threshold'. These findings indicate that adolescent males who are at increased risk for elevated systolic and diastolic blood pressure can be identified by how often angry feelings are held-in and suppressed.

This study investigated the relationship between anxiety and coronary artery disease (CAD). State (S-ANX) and trait (T-ANX) anxiety were assessed with the State-Trait Personality Inventory (STPI), which was administered to 373 patients (230 males, 143 females) 12 to 18 hr prior to their undergoing coronary arteriography. Females were significantly higher than males in both T-ANX (p less than 0.05) and S-ANX (p less than 0.01). Younger patients of both sexes were significantly higher in S-ANX (p less than 0.001), but no relationship was found between T-ANX and age. Patients with CAD did not differ in S-ANX from those without CAD. T-ANX scores of female patients were unrelated to MI or CAD. Male patients with chest pain only (CPO) were higher in T-ANX than males with prior myocardial infarction or chest pain plus CAD (p less than 0.01). Although this difference was not significant for older males (p less than 0.31), younger CPO males were significantly higher in T-ANX than the other clinical groups (p less than 0.05). These results were interpreted as indicating that high T-ANX is not associated with CAD, but is a risk factor for angiography, especially for younger males.

SUMMARY Previous studies have shown that a combination of avoidance conditioning schedules and increased intake of salt and water results in progressive hypertension in dogs within 14 days. The present experiments investigated the effects of increasing potassium intake upon blood pressure and heart rate of dogs made hypertensive by avoidance conditioning and salt-water loading. Two daily 30-minute sessions of free-operant avoidance conditioning were presented for 36 days during which isotonic saline was continuously infused into the arterial circulation (1.2 liters/day; 185 mEq Na + ). Daily mean levels of systolic ( to a combination of free-operant avoidance conditioning schedules and continuous infusion of isotonic saline results in progressive hypertension within 14 days, accompanied by no consistent changes in heart rate levels. '• 2 By contrast, exposure of dogs to avoidance schedules under conditions of normal sodium intake, or salt-water loading without avoidance stress, typically produces no significant blood pressure changes over the same time periods. This new model of rapidly-developing hypertension requires no specific genetic bias, surgical alteration of kidney functions, or administration of steroids.Several models of experimental hypertension have been developed previously in rodents which involve increases in salt intake but no systematic aversive stimulation. For example, significant blood pressure elevations have been observed as a function of salt feeding in rats with genetic bias, 3 ' 4 surgical alteration of renal

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