Psychiatric Aspects of Hypertension

Abstract

The physiological response to stress falls mainly on the cardiovascular system, adrenergic stimulation resulting in peripheral vasoconstriction and an increase in systemic blood pressure. The analogous effects that occur in anxiety-provoking situations immediately suggest an association, whether causal or effectual, between raised blood pressure and anxiety. It has also been suggested that hypertensive individuals exhibit more aggressive traits than others and that these may be hidden or suppressed, becoming manifest by abnormal elevation of the blood pressure (Smirk, 1957).

Stress and Distress in Essential Hypertension

“…This dimension focuses on feelings of personal inadequacy and inferi ority, particularly in comparison to other persons (6). Our data confirm previous findings using a different version of SCL (4) published in literature (13,20).…”

Next-day residual effects of hypnotics in DSM-IV primary insomnia: a driving simulator study with simultaneous electroencephalogram monitoring

“…The widespread use of prescribed hypnotic medication and non-prescription remedies is an indirect reflect of this high frequency of sleep complaints and its related morbidity (Mellinger et al 1985;Wheatley et al 1975). In this context, benzodiazepines, including flunitrazepam, flurazepam, lormetazepam, temazepam and triazolam are among the most commonly prescribed drug treatments for insomnia (Gold et al 1995;Nowell et al 1997).…”

Hypertension and Neuroticism

“…Davies' finding that recently diagnosed hypertensives score sig nificantly lower for neuroticism than normo tensives has been confirmed by most later studies [12][13][14][15], However, varying results have been obtained for hypertensives who are aware of having this illness. While some investigators did not find any difference be tween 'aware' hypertensives and normoten sives in the level of neuroticism [5,14,15], others reported that the 'aware' hyperten sives tended to score higher than the controls for neuroticism [11][12][13]16].…”