Blood Pressure, Emotional Dampening, and Risk Behavior: Implications for Hypertension Development

McCubbin, James A.; Nathan, A W; Hibdon, Melissa A.; Castillo, Anastasia V.; Graham, Jack G.; Switzer, Fred S.

doi:10.1097/psy.0000000000000598

Cited by 15 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…Overview. Although there were no associations between resting blood pressure and general emotional responding in Studies 1 and 2, this could be because participants were not responding in real time to any emotional content, as participants have in previous studies that found evidence for emotional dampening (e.g., McCubbin et al, 2014McCubbin et al, , 2018. Further, whereas the measures from Studies 1 and 2 assessed sensitivity to self-relevant experiences of social pain in ways similar to those in the physicalpain literature (i.e., acute physical pain is harm directed to the self), sensitivity to social pain could extend to viewing physical pain directed at other people.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 71%

“…According to the emotional-dampening hypothesis, resting blood pressure may dampen emotional responsivity not only toward physical pain but also toward emotionally meaningful stimuli in general, regardless of valence (McCubbin et al, 2014). Thus, higher resting blood pressure is linked to lower responses to an acute emotional experience (McCubbin et al, 2014, 2018) and perceived stress (Hassoun et al, 2015). Studies comparing individuals with higher and lower resting blood pressure have found similar results for other emotional outcomes (e.g., Duschek et al, 2017; Yoris et al, 2020).…”

Section: Resting Blood Pressure and General Emotional Dampeningmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Resting (Tonic) Blood Pressure Is Associated With Sensitivity to Imagined and Acute Experiences of Social Pain: Evidence From Three Studies

Inagaki

Gianaros

2022

Psychol Sci

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Social pain is a common experience that has potent implications for health. However, individuals differ in their sensitivity to social pain. Recent evidence suggests that sensitivity to social pain varies according to a biological factor that modulates sensitivity to physical pain: resting (tonic) blood pressure. The current studies extended this evidence by testing whether blood pressure relates to sensitivity to imagined (Study 1: N = 762, 51% female adults) and acute (Study 2, preregistered: N = 204, 57% female adults) experiences of social pain and whether associations extend to general emotional responding (Studies 1–3; Study 3: N = 162, 59% female adults). In line with prior evidence, results showed that higher resting blood pressure was associated with lower sensitivity to social pain. Moreover, associations regarding blood pressure and sensitivity to social pain did not appear to be explained by individual differences in general emotional responding. Findings appear to be compatible with the interpretation that social and physical pain share similar cardiovascular correlates and may be modulated by convergent interoceptive pathways.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 71%

Section: Resting Blood Pressure and General Emotional Dampeningmentioning

confidence: 99%

Resting (Tonic) Blood Pressure Is Associated With Sensitivity to Imagined and Acute Experiences of Social Pain: Evidence From Three Studies

Inagaki

Gianaros

2022

Psychol Sci

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“…Increasing age, family history of hypertension, genetic factors, low socioeconomic status, low educational level, obesity, physical inactivity, smoking, and psychosocial stressors are common risk factors for hypertension (Mozaffarian et al, ). Moreover, increases in blood pressure appear to be associated with health‐damaging behaviours (McCubbin et al, ) and psychosocial stressors (Mozaffarian et al, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Coping styles in individuals with hypertension of varying severity

et al. 2019

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The strategies that people usually use to cope with stressful events, that is, their coping style, may affect blood pressure and cardiovascular functioning. Generally, hypertension is positively associated with emotion-oriented, maladaptive coping strategies and negatively related to task-focused coping styles, but no study has investigated the relationship between coping strategies and the severity of hypertension. This study aimed to assess whether the severity of cardiovascular disorders was associated with specific coping strategies. Participants were selected from the Policlinico Umberto I of the University of Rome "Sapienza." The sample was divided into five groups: (a) healthy people (n = 190); (b) people with untreated hypertension (n = 232); (c) people using antihypertensive medication (n = 158); (d) people using antihypertensive medication with uncontrolled hypertension (n = 179); and (e) people suffering from both hypertension and heart diseases (N = 192). Coping strategies were evaluated with the Coping Inventory for Stressful Situations. One-way ANCOVAs, considering Group as the independent variable and the coping strategies (task-focused, emotion-oriented and avoidance-oriented coping) as dependent variables, showed that individuals affected by both hypertension and heart diseases made less use of task-focused coping strategies than the other groups. These findings confirm the relationship between coping style and hypertension and highlight that patients with hypertension and heart diseases make less use of appropriate coping strategies. K E Y W O R D Scoping strategies, heart diseases, hypertension

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“…It is also worth considering that, while this study examined typical/chronic pain levels, somewhat distinct results might be expected if instead measuring acute pain intensity. For example, sustained high blood pressure has been associated with analgesia for acute pain as well as with reduced awareness of both interoceptive and exteroceptive emotional cues—effects that may relate to autonomic dysregulation and altered interoceptive function (Delgado, Vila, & Reyes del Paso, 2014; Loveless et al., 2018; McCubbin et al., 2014, 2018). Given such findings, it would be useful for future studies of EA in IBS to include both acute and chronic pain measures—as one might expect EA to be related to acute and chronic pain intensity in different ways.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Higher Emotional Awareness Is Associated With Reduced Pain in Irritable Bowel Syndrome Patients: Preliminary Results

et al. 2019

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Objective Recent evidence indicates that interventions designed to improve emotional awareness reduce pain in irritable bowel syndrome. This preliminary study sought to determine whether trait emotional awareness is associated with typical pain in patients with irritable bowel syndrome. Methods Healthy volunteers ( n = 66) and irritable bowel syndrome patients ( n = 50) were asked to self-report their typical levels of pain intensity and complete both the Levels of Emotional Awareness Scale and the Somatization Scale of the Brief Symptom Inventory. Results Levels of Emotional Awareness Scale scores in irritable bowel syndrome patients did not differ from scores in healthy participants; however, higher Levels of Emotional Awareness Scale scores in irritable bowel syndrome patients predicted lower levels of typical pain intensity ( r(45) = −.36, p = .01, 95% CI [−.59, −.08]) and lower levels of somatization ( r(45)= −.31, p = .03, 95% CI [−.55, −.02]). Conclusions This inverse relationship between emotional awareness and both pain and somatization symptoms is consistent with evidence that irritable bowel syndrome patients experience reduced pain from therapies designed to improve emotional awareness. The Levels of Emotional Awareness Scale could potentially be used to identify patients who could benefit from such therapy and could potentially be a moderator of response to efficacious psychological therapies.

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Blood Pressure, Emotional Dampening, and Risk Behavior: Implications for Hypertension Development

Cited by 15 publications

References 29 publications

Resting (Tonic) Blood Pressure Is Associated With Sensitivity to Imagined and Acute Experiences of Social Pain: Evidence From Three Studies

Resting (Tonic) Blood Pressure Is Associated With Sensitivity to Imagined and Acute Experiences of Social Pain: Evidence From Three Studies

Coping styles in individuals with hypertension of varying severity

Higher Emotional Awareness Is Associated With Reduced Pain in Irritable Bowel Syndrome Patients: Preliminary Results

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