title: Anger and cardiovascular startle reactivity in normotensive young males.
abstract: Anger has been implicated in the etiology of hypertensive disease. Trait anger has been linked to enhanced cardiovascular responsiveness. However, whether this association reflects differences in context appraisal or a general hyper-reactivity of the cardiovascular system remains unclear. We studied the cardiovascular response to acoustic startle probes in 76 healthy Caucasian males in different affective contices (pleasant, neutral, and unpleasant). All participants completed the State-Trait-Anger-Expression-Inventory (STAXI) by Spielberger and the results were analysed with stepwise regression analysis according to the anger scores and traditional risk factors for hypertension. Our study reveals differential modulation of the cardiovascular response to startle stimuli by affective pictures in the dimensions "valence" for heart rate and "arousal" for blood pressure. Anger-in was identified as the most important determinant for blood pressure responses in unpleasant context, while anger-out was associated with less cardiovascular activation in neutral context. This is the first study that relates trait anger to cardiovascular reactivity and affective reflex modulation in normotensive subjects. We could demonstrate an interaction of affective context and trait anger for cardiovascular (hyper-)reactivity. Increased cardiovascular reactivity for higher scores of anger-in in unpleasant context may indicate enhanced sympathetic reactivity and constitute a risk factor for the development of essential hypertension.
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Physiology, University of Trier, Institute of Psychobiology, Trier, Germany. richters@uni-trier.de
authors.forename: Steffen
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Richter
authors.forename: Hans-Christian
authors.initials: HC
authors.lastname: Deter
authors.forename: Miriam
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Rudat
authors.forename: Hartmut
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Schächinger
authors.forename: Frank
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Zimmermann-Viehoff
authors.forename: Cora
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Weber
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000786:Anger / Q000502:physiology*; D001794:Blood Pressure / Q000502:physiology; D002320:Cardiovascular Physiological Phenomena; D003627:Data Interpretation, Statistical; D004562:Electrocardiography; D004576:Electromyography; D006339:Heart Rate / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D012018:Reflex / Q000502:physiology; D013216:Reflex, Startle / Q000502:physiology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult