ABSTRACT
Hypertension places as many as 58 million people in the United States at increased risk for a variety of health problems and diseases, including coronary artery disease, peripheral vascular disease, and kidney failure (Joint National Committee, 1988). In addition to the serious medical consequences of chronically sustained blood pressure, this condition has been shown to affect the central nervous system (CNS) on several levels. In the extreme, a variety of clinically overt neurologic complications of advanced hypertension may develop, including convulsions, hypertensive encephalopathy, ischemic stroke, intracerebral hemorrhage, and multi-infarct dementia (Page, 1987). On a more subtle level, hypertensive individuals display less obvious impairments in psychological functioning, which have been observed through poorer performance on perceptual and psychomotor tests, as compared to individuals with normal blood pressure (e.g., Blumenthal, Madden, Pierce, Siegel, & Appelbaum, 1993; Elias, Robbins, & Schultz, 1987; Elias, Robbins, Schultz, & Pierce, 1990; Light, 1978; Madden & Blumenthal, 1989; Oppenheimer & Fishberg, 1928; Waldstein, Manuck, Ryan, & Muldoon, 1991; Wilkie, Eisdorfer, & Nowlin, 1976).
