ABSTRACT
Essential hypertension is a substantial problem. It is estimated that as many as 15 per cent of the adult populations of western countries exhibit high blood pressure; world-wide estimates fluctuate around 10 per cent. As with coronary heart disease (CHD), hypertension is a multi-faceted disorder with a complex aetiology. Since hypertension is a potent risk factor for CHD, it may be in this way that relatively pronounced reactivity to stress makes its contribution. Essential hypertension is high blood pressure where there is no detectable medical or organic cause. The vast majority of cases of high blood pressure are of this sort. While individuals exhibiting type A behaviour may not be reliably characterized by particularly large cardiovascular reactions to psychological stress, excessive reactivity may still play an important part in cardiovascular pathology. Thus, there are reasons for implicating large-magnitude, excessive cardiac reactions to stress in the development of hypertension.
