Baseline and reactivity measures of blood pressure and negative affect in borderline hypertension

Measures of blood pressure (BP) and negative affect were taken prior to, immediately following, and ten minutes after a cognitive stressor in groups of normotensive (group N; n = 15) and borderline hypertensive (group B; n = 15) young adults. Two testing sessions, one week apart, involved performance of a simple, congruent color-word ("easy") and a cognitive stress-inducing, incongruent color-word ("difficult") version of the Stroop test. In both sessions, group B showed significantly higher baseline systolic and diastolic BP, higher systolic responses to the difficult Stroop task, and higher recovery measures of systolic and diastolic BP than group N. In general, group B had significantly elevated baseline and reactivity scores on state measures of negative affect in both sessions. Correlations revealed strong positive associations between blood pressure and mood reactivity only for borderline subjects. Depressed mood was more strongly and consistently related to blood pressure reactivity than was hostility. Borderline hypertension appears to be associated with stable, perhaps clinically significant elevations in negative affect, and with dysphoric response to mild cognitive stress.