title: Salt sensitivity, anxiety, and irritability predict blood pressure increase over five years in healthy males.
abstract: Salt sensitivity and psychological factors are thought to be associated with a higher risk for the development of hypertension but data on the relation between age-related blood pressure increase and salt sensitivity or psychological factors are scarce. A total of 31 healthy young males who were previously classified with respect to salt sensitivity, mental stress reactivity, trait-anxiety, trait-anger, and irritability were followed up 4.8 years later by 24 hr ambulatory blood pressure monitoring (ABP). Our results showed anxiety and irritability correlated significantly with 24-hr ABP 4.8 years later (p < 0.05). The increase of diastolic blood pressure over 4.8 years was higher in salt-sensitive than salt-resistant subjects (p < 0.07). Heart rate and diastolic blood pressure correlated significantly with systolic and diastolic 24-hr ABP and blood pressure reactivity under mental stress with diastolic 24-hr ABP. A regression analysis that included cardiovascular and psychological factors yielded 34% (systolic ABP, p < 0.009) and 58% (diastolic ABP, p < 0.0001) of variance. We concluded that anxiety and irritability are important predictors of blood pressure increase over time in healthy males.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, Benjamin Franklin Medical Center, Free University of Berlin, Berlin, Germany. deter@charite.de
authors.forename: Hans-Christian
authors.initials: HC
authors.lastname: Deter
authors.forename: Clemens
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Micus
authors.forename: Miriam
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Wagner
authors.forename: Arya M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Sharma
authors.forename: Konrad
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Buchholz
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001007:Anxiety / Q000150:complications; D001794:Blood Pressure / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000209:etiology* / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology; D007508:Irritable Mood; D008297:Male; D012307:Risk Factors; D012982:Sodium, Dietary / Q000009:adverse effects; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000150:complications
chemical_list: D012982:Sodium, Dietary