News - Hypertension Week of Jan. 25, 2004/ Vol. 3 No. 04

Study: High Blood Pressure Linked to Depression in People With Family History of Hypertension

High blood pressure is linked to depression only in people with a family history of hypertension, according to a study reported in the January/February issue of Psychosomatic Medicine.

Lead researcher Karen M. Grewen, of the University of North Carolina department of psychiatry, said the impact of parental hypertension on future risk is most likely the result of shared genes, learned behaviors and shared environments.

Grewen and her colleagues measured the blood pressure of participants with symptoms of depression for 24 hours using a wearable monitor. Participants whose mother or father or both had high blood pressure were listed as having a family history of the disease.

The participants whose parents had hypertension had significantly higher systolic blood pressure and higher diastolic blood pressure. They also had a higher body mass index, although both groups fell into the overweight category.

The association was weakest for those with no hypertensive parent, moderate for those with one such parent and strongest for those with two parents who had high blood pressure.

How depression influences heart disease is not entirely clear, according to Grewen and her colleagues, but they noted that the connection may have both behavioral and biological components.

The researchers said depressed people may act in unhealthy ways, like smoking or not taking their medicine. They also noted that depression may also work more directly within the body by triggering or inhibiting substances that endanger the heart, either immediately or over time.

Grewen and her colleagues concluded that behavioral interventions that reduce depressive symptoms may be effective in lowering the risk of hypertension in people genetically prone to developing the condition.

Other sources: Health Behavior News Service