I found this article extremely interesting mainly because I
relate to the subject. I myself suffered from depression as a teenager and I
now have hypertension. Recent analyses of almost 3,000 subjects enrolled in the
National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey I Epidemiologic Follow-Up
Study who were followed up for 7-16 years showed that high depressive and
anxious symptoms assessed with a standardized measure were significant
predictors of hypertension onset. Independent and significant increased risk
was found for white subjects aged 45-65 years and for black subjects aged 25-64
years. Hypertension incidence was significantly more elevated in the high and
intermediate depressive symptom groups than in the low depressive symptom group
for both the full sample and the black cohort. Of the subjects classified as
having hypertension, 47% used antihypertensive medication, 51% had a resting diastolic
BP higher than 95mmHg, and 1% had a resting systolic BP higher than 160mmHg.
Finally, 1% of the subjects met both the diastolic and systolic BP criteria.
High depressive symptoms in blacks predicted hypertension better than any other
potential risk factor for hypertension. The results of this study shows that
depressive symptoms were predictive of later hypertension incidence in young
adults. The relation between depression and hypertension is biologically
plausible given the increased adrenergic activity in depression that may have a
pressor effect on the cardiovascular system. I hope you find this as interesting as I did!
Great article. Interesting that both hypertension and early depression correlate with each other. I would have not thought that and this article was very informative on how they do so. Good information!
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