Personality differences between hypertensive and normotensive individuals

Personality characteristics such as anxiety and anger have long been associated with essential hypertension, but the results of past studies have often been confounded by inadequate diagnosis of hypertension, antihypertensive medications, and use of unvalidated measures of personality. Moreover, little attention has been given to the importance of differential exposure to medical attention and labeling as determinants of personality. To overcome these shortcomings, personality characteristics were measured by self-report using validated questionnaires in untreated male and female hypertensives who were either aware (n = 80) or unaware (n = 82) of their hypertension at the time of assessment. Hypertension diagnosis was based upon repeated blood pressure measurements over 5 months. Hypertensives were compared to age-, sex-, ethnicity-, and occupation-matched normotensives. Results indicated that aware hypertensives scored significantly higher than normotensives and unaware hypertensives on neuroticism, trait and state anxiety, and self-reported Type A behavior. They also scored higher than normotensives on state anger, and there was a similar trend for anger suppression. There were no differences between unaware hypertensives and normotensives. The findings suggest that these personality factors are not a fundamental characteristic of hypertension but reflect the influence of exposure to medical attention or knowledge of hypertension status

Anger · Anxiety · Big Five personality traits · Blood pressure · Essential hypertension · Neuroticism · Personality · Psychiatry · Trait · Clinical Psychology · Internal Medicine · Medicine · Mental Health Research Topics · Personality Traits and Psychology · Psychology · Social Psychology · Stress Responses and Cortisol

• Race and ethnicity moderate the associations between lifetime psilocybin use and past year hypertension

  Open Access•Grant Jones, Grant M Jones et al.•Frontiers in Psychiatry•2024

  Incluir item

• Elevated blood pressure and personality

  Randall S Jorgensen, Blair T Johnson et al.•Psychological Bulletin•1996

  Incluir item

• Diabetes mellitus and hypertension have comparable adverse effects on health-related quality of life

  Open Access•Tamara Poljičanin, Dea Ajduković et al.•BMC Public Health•2010

  Incluir item

• Personality may influence reactivity to stress

  Open Access•Arnljot Flaa, Øivind Ekeberg et al.•BioPsychoSocial Medicine•2007

  Incluir item

• Unmedicated blood pressure levels and quality of life in elderly hypertensive women

  Michael A Robbins, Merrill F Elias et al.•Psychosomatic Medicine•1994

  Incluir item

• Psychological Variables in Hypertension

  Richard A Friedman, Richard Friedman et al.•Psychosomatic Medicine•2001

  Incluir item

• An Historical and Critical Review of the Articles on Blood Pressure Published in Psychosomatic Medicine Between 1939 and 1997

  Bernard T Engel•Psychosomatic Medicine•1998

  Incluir item

• Psychological impact of predicting individuals’ risks of illness

  Open Access•Chris Shaw, Keith Abrams et al.•Social Science & Medicine•1999

  Incluir item