Characteristics of depressive changes and anxiety in patients with essential hypertension

Hypertension is among the world's most widespread diseases and one of the most frequent causes of mortality in the adult population. Clinical and experimental observations indicate the importance of psychic factors in the pathogenesis of hypertension. The aim of this study was to characterize depressive symptoms as well as to analyze anxiety level in patients with essential hypertension. A group of 38 patients, 17 females and 21 males, aged 20-77, the average age being 53, treated for essential hypertension diagnosed on the basis of the generally established clinical criteria were examined with the use of A.S. Zigmond's and R.P. Snaith's Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) and C.D. Spielberger's, R.L. Gorsuch's and R.E. Lushene's State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) in an authorized translation by J. Strelau, M. Tyskarczyk and K. Wrześniewski. Examination results received with the use of HADS reveal a moderate occurrence of depressive symptoms in patients with essential hypertension. The application of STAI enabled state and trait anxiety analysis. The examined patients are characterized by an increased level of A-State as well as an increased level of A-Trait. Patients with hypertension exhibit state anxiety in reaction to all kinds of direct threat factors. They also react with an increased level of trait anxiety as an acquired behavioral disposition. This leads to a conclusion that the examined patients' reaction is marked by the anxiety disproportionate in strength to the actual danger.