Emotional Stress and Primary Hypertension in Adults

Abstract

Psychological factors in the etiology of hypertension is supported by many epidemiological investigations. However, further studies are warranted because inconsistent results of several experimental and clinical studies. The aim of this study was to estimate the exposure and the resistance to emotional stress in hypertensive patients.

The 33 subjects with diagnosed primary hypertension (17 women and 16 men, 47.8±12.6 years ) and 29 healthy volunteers (12 women and 17 men, 30.0±11.0 years ) were examined. The exposure and the resistant to emotional stress in the subjects was assayed based on a questionnaire including items to assess sources of stress, occurrence of emotional stress in life periods (from childhood to nowadays) as well as the resistance to stress in the subjects own sense as good, moderate and weak. All the participants had also measured blood pressure.

Most of the subjects (80%) were exposed to emotional stress in both groups. Results of the study showed that the main sources of emotional stress in hypertensive subjects were: job (56%), family (74%) and health (56%) while in the healthy: job (50%) and family (79%). The least 11% of healthy people declared health as the main source of stress. It was found that significantly higher percentage of hypertensive subjects declared weak resistance to stress than healthy (55 vs.17%). Analysis of blood pressure didn't show any significant dependence on stress in both studied groups.

Based on the obtained results it is justified to conclude that hypertensive patients were less resistant to emotional stress than healthy people.