Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: UMLS:C0085580 (essential hypertension)
 14,686 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

A substantial literature on the "hypertensive personality" links essential hypertension (EH) with the suppression of negative emotions, implying that suppression may elevate blood pressure. Yet affective inhibition might also impair communication with health care providers and exacerbate EH by limiting therapeutic collaboration. We studied 542 patient-physician interviews from a national sample to see if patients with EH (n = 203) were less likely to exhibit negative emotions than normotensive patients (n = 339) as rated by their physicians and independent observers. EH patients did not differ from others on self-rated emotional or physical health. However, physicians were less accurate in characterizing the emotional states of EH patients than those of normotensive patients, and they rated EH patients as exhibiting fewer signs of distress during the visit. Independent observers also judged the EH patients as less distressed than normotensives, thereby validating the physicians' appraisals. Content analysis disclosed that physicians paid less attention to psychosocial concerns and concentrated on biomedical matters to a greater degree with hypertensive patients than with their normotensive patients. EH patients, particularly those experiencing emotional distress, appear to have patterns of self-presentation that could present an obstacle to effective communication with their physicians, and this difficulty may be amplified by physicians' disinclination to probe for emotional difficulty.
 ...
PMID:Emotional inhibition in essential hypertension: obstacle to communication during medical visits? 161 70

Stress can cause hypertension through repeated blood pressure elevations as well as by stimulation of the nervous system to produce large amounts of vasoconstricting hormones that increase blood pressure. Factors affecting blood pressure through stress include white coat hypertension, job strain, race, social environment, and emotional distress. Furthermore, when one risk factor is coupled with other stress producing factors, the effect on blood pressure is multiplied. Overall, studies show that stress does not directly cause hypertension, but can have an effect on its development. A variety of non-pharmacologic treatments to manage stress have been found effective in reducing blood pressure and development of hypertension, examples of which are meditation, acupressure, biofeedback and music therapy. Recent results from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey indicate that 50 million American adults have hypertension (defined to be a systolic blood pressure of greater than 139 mm Hg or a diastolic blood pressure of greater than 89 mm Hg). In 95% of these cases, the cause of hypertension is unknown and they are categorized as "essential" hypertension. Although a single cause may not be identified, the general consensus is that various factors contribute to blood pressure elevation in essential hypertension. In these days of 70 hour work weeks, pagers, fax machines, and endless committee meetings, stress has become a prevalent part of people's lives; therefore the effect of stress on blood pressure is of increasing relevance and importance. Although stress may not directly cause hypertension, it can lead to repeated blood pressure elevations, which eventually may lead to hypertension. In this article we explore how stress can cause hypertension and what can be done about it.
 ...
PMID:Stress and hypertension. 989 38

The origin of essential hypertension is believed by many to be at least partially emotion-related. A widely held paradigm is that perceived emotional distress raises blood pressure and leads eventually to sustained hypertension. However, decades of research have not provided strong or consistent support for this view. The purpose of this article is to briefly review this research, and to present a very different view of the mind-body link of hypertension. This view focuses on the role of emotions that are not consciously perceived, emotions that are unknowingly kept from conscious awareness, and largely ignored by patients, physicians and research. It suggests that the mind/body connection is often operative when we least suspect it. The evidence for this understanding, and the important implications regarding treatment of hypertension and other unexplained medical conditions with a suspected mind/body link, are discussed.
 ...
PMID:The mind/body link in essential hypertension: time for a new paradigm. 1071 Aug 2