title: Essential hypertension: the relationship of psychological factors to the severity of hypertension.
abstract: 165 hypertensive patients attending one general practice in Portugal were found to report significantly higher scores on measures of neuroticism, anxiety, depression and general psychological distress than 152 normotensive patients at the same practice. Hypertensive patients with evidence of organ damage exhibited significantly higher depression scores than those without such damage. These differences between normotensives and hypertensives, and between hypertensive with and without organ damage are discussed and previous research in this area is reviewed.
authors.affiliation: Departmento de Psiquiatria e Saúde Mental, Faculdade de Medicina do Porto, Hospital de S. Jaão, Portugal.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Coelho
authors.forename: A M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Hughes
authors.forename: A F
authors.initials: AF
authors.lastname: da Fonseca
authors.forename: M R
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Bond
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001008:Anxiety Disorders / Q000150:complications; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000150:complications; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000150:complications / Q000523:psychology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009497:Neurotic Disorders / Q000150:complications