Abstract
Hypertension risk may be associated with increased adreno-cortical activity, but the extent to which this enhanced activation differs between men and women at rest and in response to psychological stress is not known. This study examined gender differences in adrenocortical responses to an extended public-speaking stressor in persons at high (resting systolic blood pressure > median; n = 21)or low risk (negative parental history and = median systolic blood pressure; n = 26). Salivary cortisol levels were assessed at rest and in response to public speaking in a repeated measure design on two test sessions held on separate days. Heart rate, systolic blood pressure, and diastolic blood pressure were obtained at 3-min intervals before, during, and after the task. High-risk participants showed greater cortisol, blood pressures, and heart rate responses to the public-speaking stressor than the low-risk group (ps < .01). Men showed greater cortisol concentrations than women (p < .05), independent of hypertension risk status. Cardiovascular measures during the acute stressor predicted subsequent cortisol production, but only in the high-risk group. Results suggest that hypertension risk is associated with enhanced physiological reactivity across sympathetic and adrenocortical systems, supporting the possibility that this exaggerated reactivity may represent a marker of risk in hypertension-prone men and women.
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This research was supported in part by grants from the Minnesota Medical Foundation, the University of Minnesota Graduate School Grant-in-Aid program, and the Whiteside Clinical Research Institute. During this study Mustafa al’Absi was also funded by National Institute of Health Grants CA 88272 and HL 64794.
We thank Clemens Kirschbaum of the University of Düsseldorf, Germany, for assistance with the salivary cortisol assay. We also thank Katie Bellmont, Todd Amunrud, and Nicolas Crost for assistance with data collection and management. We thank Carol Peterman for her editorial work on this article.
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Absi, M.a., Wittmers, L.E. Enhanced adrenocortical responses to stress in Hypertension-Prone Men and Women. ann. behav. med. 25, 25–33 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1207/S15324796ABM2501_04
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1207/S15324796ABM2501_04