Relationship between mood and blood pressure in the natural environment: an adolescent population

We examined the relation between psychological variables and blood pressure (BP) as 28 adolescents engaged in their customary activities over a 24-hr period in their natural environment. Each subject had previously participated in a laboratory study of cardiovascular reactivity. During the ambulatory monitoring period, subjects monitored mood state, perceptions of the environment, and ambulatory BP at 30-min intervals. Mood ratings and BP were averaged across the waking hours. Systolic blood pressure (SBP) reactivity to laboratory stressors was significantly correlated with average SBP in the home environment. Ambulatory SBP was positively associated with worried, hostile, depressed, and tense mood ratings as well as perceptions of the environment as hostile, demanding, and noisy. Ambulatory diastolic blood pressure was correlated with hostile, depressed, and upset mood ratings as well as with hostile and demanding perceptions of the environment. In general, average ambulatory BP appeared to be associated with negative emotions and perceptions of the environment.