This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) All Versions of this Article: 52/2/220    most recent HYPERTENSIONAHA.108.115477v1 Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Request Permissions Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Steptoe, A. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Steptoe, A. Pubmed/NCBI databases Substance via MeSH Medline Plus Health Information High Blood Pressure Stress Related Collections Clinical Studies Related Article

(Hypertension. 2008;52:220.)
© 2008 American Heart Association, Inc.

Editorial Commentaries

Psychophysiological Stress Reactivity and Hypertension

Andrew Steptoe

From the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, University College London, London, United Kingdom.

Correspondence to Andrew Steptoe, Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, University College London, 1-19 Torrington Place, London WC1E 6BT, United Kingdom. E-mail a.steptoe@ucl.ac.uk

An extract of the first 250 words of the full text is provided, because this article has no abstract.

Two major research strategies have emerged for investigating the role of psychosocial stress in the development of hypertension. The first is to carry out population-based assessments of associations between stress exposure and future hypertension or increases in blood pressure using standard observational epidemiological methods. Such studies provide evidence for a relationship between stress and the development of clinical hypertension but supply limited information about the pathways involved. The second more mechanistic strategy is to measure physiological reactions to acute psychological stress. Extensive work was carried out in the 1980s and 1990s comparing hypertensive subjects with normotensive subjects, people with high and low blood pressure in the reference range, and individuals with positive and negative family histories of hypertension, assessing whether the higher-risk group shows greater physiological stress reactivity. The clinical significance of acute stress reactions has been questioned, so longitudinal follow-up studies have been conducted to establish whether people who show heightened acute stress reactivity are at greater risk for the development of hypertension.¹

In this issue of Hypertension, Flaa et al² present an important longitudinal study of the prognostic significance of individual differences in reactions to psychological stress. The study has several strengths. First, the follow-period of 18 years is longer than in most previous work, and the proportion of the original participants who were reassessed was high (82%). Second, a population-based sampling strategy was used, recruiting participants from young Norwegian men being examined before military service. Military service is obligatory in Norway, so the 19-year-olds tested in . . . [Full Text of this Article]

Related Article:

Sympathoadrenal Stress Reactivity Is a Predictor of Future Blood Pressure: An 18-Year Follow-Up Study

Arnljot Flaa, Ivar K. Eide, Sverre E. Kjeldsen, and Morten Rostrup
Hypertension 2008 52: 336-341. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]