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Cognitive stress and cardiovascular reactivity. I. Relationship to hypertension
Insights
Cognitive stress can increase cardiovascular reactivity, potentially leading to hypertension. Individuals with higher reactivity may face a greater risk of developing hypertension.
Area of Science:
- Cardiology
- Psychophysiology
- Hypertension Research
Background:
- Cardiovascular reactivity, a change in parameters like blood pressure and heart rate due to cognitive stressors, is linked to hypertension development.
- Cognitive stressors include laboratory tasks like mental math, reaction time tests, and interviews.
Purpose of the Study:
- To review the literature connecting cognitive stress and cardiovascular reactivity to hypertension.
- To explore the potential of reactivity studies in understanding hypertension.
- To examine how reactivity relates to hypertension incidence, family history, and blood pressure lability.
Main Methods:
- Literature review of studies on cognitive stress, cardiovascular reactivity, and hypertension.
- Analysis of findings from laboratory-based mental tasks and their impact on cardiovascular parameters.
- Examination of prospective studies and reliability of reactivity measures.
Main Results:
- Cardiovascular reactivity appears reliable within individuals over short periods.
- Individuals with higher cardiovascular reactivity to cognitive stressors may have an increased incidence of future hypertension.
- Reactivity correlates with hypertension in individuals with a family history and with blood pressure lability in those with established hypertension.
Conclusions:
- Cardiovascular reactivity research offers unique insights into hypertension.
- Hyperresponsiveness to mental stress may play a role in hypertension development through mechanisms like altered vascular rigidity and renal regulation.
- Further prospective studies are needed to solidify the link between reactivity and hypertension.
Abstract:
This report reviews the current literature relating cognitive stress and cardiovascular reactivity to the development of hypertension. Cardiovascular reactivity may refer to a change in one or several cardiovascular parameters as a function of exposure to a cognitive stressor, e.g., systolic BP, HR, etc. The cognitive stressors involve laboratory-based mental tasks such as mental mathematics, choice reaction time, and stressful interviews. The current findings suggest that the reactivity literature may have something unique to contribute to the study of hypertension. Prospective studies linking clinical hypertension to early reactivity are few in number. However, reactivity appears to be reliable within individuals over short periods of time (3 months), and individuals at the upper end of the reactivity distribution may have a higher incidence of future hypertension than those at the lower end. Reactivity may also contribute to two other dimensions of hypertension. Subjects with positive family histories of hypertension may be expected to be among the most reactive to cognitive stress, and among established hypertensive individuals, the reactivity to stress may be correlated with casual BP lability. Several avenues have been suggested through which a hyperresponsiveness to mental stress may be implicated in the development of hypertension. Repeated stressor episodes might influence vascular rigidity, through direct alteration of smooth muscle morphology and downregulation of the alpha receptor or through a process of autoregulation of CO, blood volume, and changes in renal regulation of water and sodium balance.