PSYCHOPHYSIOLOGICAL RESPONSES OF BORDERLINE HYPERTENSIVES IN 2 EXPERIMENTAL SITUATIONS

Given the contradictory reports concerning psychophysiological reactiv ity of hypertensives this issue was reexamined. In contrast to the lar ge majority of studies, the hypertensive sample should not be made up of patients in medical care and the control group should be comparable in all relevant aspects other than blood pressure. Twelve male subjec ts with blood pressure values in the borderline range and 12 normotens ive controls were recruited from a blood donation program. Experiments consisted of two parts with baseline, stress and followup. Stressors were a short distressing movie and mental arithmetic. Systolic and dia stolic blood pressure (SEP and DBP), heart rate (HR), skin conductance level (SCL) and number of spontaneous electrodermal fluctuations (SF) were assessed in 2-min intervals, plasma adrenaline and noradrenaline once during baselines, stress 2 and follow-up 2. Hypertensives exhibi ted significantly higher SPB levels, and partially elevated values for DBP, HR and SCL. Response reactions to stressors, however, did not di ffer between groups. There was no evidence that psychophysiological ad aptation during stress and recovery thereafter was impaired in hyperte nsives. Our results do not support the reactivity hypothesis of hypert ension. Possible reasons for our failure to replicate findings from ot her studies are discussed.