IMPACT OF ANGER AND ANGER-EXPRESSION ON B LOOD-PRESSURE LEVEL IN PATIENTS WITH MILD HYPERTENSION

Very controversial results have been reported concerning the associati on between anger, anger expression, and blood pressure level in health y students, middle aged women and men, and hypertensive patients. We, therefore, assessed anger and anger expression with a widely accepted questionnaire (STAXI) and monitored blood pressure for 24 hours with t he Physioport/Tonoport system in a rather large and homogeneous sample of 95 patients with essential hypertension (WHO stage I) who all were inpatients for a psychosomatic rehabilitation program. No significant correlations were found between trail anger, anger-in, and BP levels. However, anger-out was significantly correlated with systolic BP duri ng the day (r = 0.21, p < 0.05). Patients with anger-out above the ave rage of the study population were 9 mmHg higher in SEP throughout the day than patients with anger-out below average. The largest difference s were found in the afternoon and in the evening. These results demons trate that anger-out might be regarded as a stress response with corre sponding effects on BP.