ANGER EXPRESSION AND CARDIOVASCULAR REACTIVITY TO MENTAL STRESS - A SPECTRAL-ANALYSIS APPROACH

The cardiovascular reactivation to a recently described videogame task ie. a maze test was evaluated in the time and frequency-domain using finger blood pressure (BP) measurement in 25 subjects on no medication , including 6 subjects with mild hypertension. Prior to BP measures su bjects completed the items of the State-Trait Anger Expression Invento ry questionnaire corresponding to the trait anger and anger expression scales. The BP recording session was divided into resting, test and r ecovery periods. A detrending procedure was applied to each recording prior to the fast Fourier transform. Systolic BP (SBP) and heart rate (HR) were increased during the test. The mid-frequency (MF, 0.1 Hz) co mponents of SBP and HR variability were also elevated during the stres sful period. In resting conditions SBP levels of subjects with low tra it anger was lower than in subjects with high trait anger (128+/-4 mmH g, n=14 versus 148+/-4 mmHg, n=11, P<0.01, Student t test). Neverthele ss the average SBP increase due to the stress was of similar magnitude in these two subgroups (14 mmHg). A significant negative relationship was observed between anger-out expression score and the MF SBP variat ion (r=-0.46, P<0.05). A significant negative relation was found betwe en anger-in node of expression and the HR peak during the test (r=-0.4 3, P<0.05). in conclusion, our data suggest that individuals who are o ften in anger-provoking situations (high trait anger) should have heig htened BP. Two different patterns of cardiovascular responses (SBP var iability and HR levels) were observed for the outward and inward mode of expression of anger. This may reflect a different psychological con trol of HR levels and BP variability.