HOSTILITY, TESTOSTERONE, AND VASCULAR REACTIVITY TO STRESS - EFFECTS OF SEX

This study investigated the association of personality with cardiovasc ular stress reactivity (CVR) in men and women. Also, the degree to whi ch testosterone and estradiol reactivity were related to personality a nd CVR measures was examined. Twenty-six men and 44 women completed th e Cook-Medley Hostility Scale, the Beck Depression Inventory, and the Spielberger Trait Anxiety Inventory before speech, Stroop, and math st ress. Testosterone (men) and estradiol (subset of women) were sampled once after an initial rest period and again after the last stressor. C ardiovascular reactivity, including cardiac output and total periphera l resistance (TPR), was assessed during stressors. For men, testostero ne increased significantly with stress, and testosterone reactivity to stressors was significantly correlated with hostility. However, stepw ise multiple regression revealed that hostility was the only independe nt predictor of CVR to speech, math, and Stroop stress in men, account ing for 13%-32% of the variance in TPR. Baseline systolic blood pressu re explained 22% of the variance in TFR reactivity to speech preparati on. No evidence was obtained to suggest that hostility, depressive moo d, or anxiety predicted CVR in women, and estradiol did not show stres s-sensitive effects. These data provide evidence that increased vascul ar reactivity may be one mechanism linking hostility to increased card iovascular mortality in men and support the notion that hostility may have different implications for CVR in women.