Blood pressure estimation and beliefs among normotensives and hypertensives.

Abstract

Although health professionals believe that blood pressure (BP) is asymptomatic, most diagnosed hypertensives are confident that they experience specific symptoms and emotions that help them detect their BP levels. Several months after screening interviews that elicited subjects' BP beliefs, 14 medicated hypertensives, 15 nonmedicated mild hypertensives (diastolic BP greater than or equal to 90 mm Hg), 39 normotensives, and 13 hypotensives (systolic BP less than or equal to 100 mm Hg) participated in a 1- to 2-hr laboratory experiment that assessed each subject's symptoms, moods, and estimates of systolic BP (SBP) relative to actual SBP levels. Several self-reports and autonomic measures were collected 45 times during and after each of 22 tasks. Subjects never received SBP feedback during the experiment. Within-subject correlations indicated that all subject groups could estimate SBP at levels greater than chance (mean estimated SBP-actual SBP correlation = .25). Further, 68% of the subjects evidenced at least one significant symptom-SBP correlation. Although medicated hypertensives believed they could estimate their BP more accurately than other groups by using their symptoms and emotions, they were actually no more accurate than the other groups. They also evidenced far fewer empirically derived symptom-SBP and emotion-SBP correlations than any other group. Overall, BP beliefs were largely inaccurate. If these erroneous beliefs can be eliminated, subjects may be able to estimate BP fluctuations more accurately.

Psychometric investigation of the Hungarian version of the Body Awareness Questionnaire (BAQ-H) among yoga practitioners and young adult controls

“…elvárások, figyelem stb.) jelentôs mértékben befolyásolni képesek (Brown, 2006;Mehling és mtsai, 2009;Pennebaker, 1982). Mindezt mi sem szemlélteti jobban annál a sokszorosan igazolt ténynél, miszerint -mind hipochonder betegek, mind egészséges személyek esetében -rendszerint gyenge együttjárást sikerül kimutatni a valós élettani háttértörténések (pl.…”

“…Mindezt mi sem szemlélteti jobban annál a sokszorosan igazolt ténynél, miszerint -mind hipochonder betegek, mind egészséges személyek esetében -rendszerint gyenge együttjárást sikerül kimutatni a valós élettani háttértörténések (pl. szívfrekvencia, vérnyomás) és azok tudatos reprezentációja között (Barr, Pennebaker, & Watson, 1988;Barsky, Brener, Coeytaux, & Cleary, 1995;Barsky, Cleary, Brener, & Ruskin, 1993;Baumann & Leventhal, 1985;Dömötör, Szemerszky, & Köteles, megjelenés alatt;Pennebaker, 1982;Pennebaker & Watson, 1988;Steptoe & Noll, 1997). A testi tudatossággal kapcsolatos különféle elméleti és gyakorlati problémákról két korábbi publikációban (Köteles és mtsai, 2009;Köteles, Simor, & Tolnai, 2012) részletesen is szó esett, így jelen munka esetében csak a vizsgált kérdôív elméleti hátterének megértéséhez feltét-lenül szükséges szempontok kerülnek ismertetésre.…”

Patients’ perceptions of changes in their blood pressure

“…rates greater than chance. 3 Baumann and Leventhal 4 examined people's ability to monitor their own BP…”

Perception of Heart Rate and Blood Pressure: The Role of Alexithymia and Anxiety

“…Coverage of the lists of symptoms used in other studies was ensured by adding the symp tom headache [1,17,18]. The list of symptoms con sisted of: tense muscles, warm body, cold hands, fast pulse, pounding heart, tight chest, shortness of breath, heavy breathing, irritated bowels, dry mouth, blushing, turning pale, perspiring, dizziness, headache, and sweaty hands.…”

“…The accuracy of estimation of blood pressure was, however, not related to alexithymia or anxiety. These findings provide further evidence that blood pressure estimates in a laboratory setting are mainly based upon situa tional cues.Approximately 25-30% of normotensive as well as hypertensive individuals are able to accurately estimate their blood pressure (BP) [1]. Norraotensives can learn to estimate BP more accurately through specific training and education.…”