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Sample Request Received by an OMHRC Information Specialist
Question
One of our Information Specialists received an inquiry about the relationship between hypertension and mental health. Does one affect the other?
Answer
Hello,
Thank you for contacting The Office of Minority Health Resource Center. Here is what I found regarding the association of mental health and hypertension. There are a couple of brochures for consumers as well as reports from government agencies. At the bottom is a list of articles from Pubmed. Please, let me know if this information is what you were looking for and if I can help you further.
Mental Health and Hypertension
Depression Can Break Your Heart
A brief overview of the relationship between depression and heart disease
http://www.nimh.nih.gov/publicat/heartbreak.cfmSecondary high blood pressure: When another condition causes hypertension ( Consumer Brochure )
Medications and supplements
Various prescription medications — from pain relievers to antidepressants and drugs used after organ transplants — can cause or aggravate high blood pressure. Birth control pills, decongestants and certain herbal supplements, including ginseng and St. John's wort, may have the same effect. Many illicit drugs, such as cocaine and methamphetamine, also increase blood pressure.
http://www.mayoclinic.com/print/high-blood-pressure/HQ01345/METHOD=printStress and high blood pressure: What's the connection?
http://www.mayoclinic.com/print/stress-and-high-blood-pressure/HI00092/METHOD=print
Eating Disorders (Consumer Brochure)
What medical problems can arise as a result of eating disorders?
Binge-eating disorder - Binge-eating disorder can cause high blood pressure and high cholesterol levels. Other effects of binge-eating disorder include fatigue, joint pain, Type II diabetes, gallbladder disease, and heart disease.
http://mentalhealth.samhsa.gov/publications/allpubs/ken98-0047/default.aspHandling Disaster-Related Stress: Tips for Coping with Disaster
In short, disasters create a tremendous amount of stress. If this stress goes unrecognized and unmanaged, it can severely damage a person's mental and physical health. It can increase until it is impossible to cope mentally with everyday problems or to resist stress-related physical illnesses such as high blood pressure, ulcers, and heart disease.
http://mentalhealth.samhsa.gov/dtac/HandlingDisaster.aspMental Health: A Report of the Surgeon General
Schizophrenia: Overview
Prevalence of Comorbid Medical Illness
The mortality rate in persons with schizophrenia is significantly higher than that of the general population. While elevated suicide accounts for some of the excess mortality—and is a serious problem in its own right—comorbid somatic illnesses also contribute to excess mortality. Until recently, there was little information on the prevalence of comorbid medical illnesses in people with schizophrenia (Jeste et al., 1996). A recent study was among the first to document systematically that people with schizophrenia are beset by vision and dental problems, as well as by high blood pressure, diabetes, and sexually transmitted diseases. Their self-reported lifetime rates of high blood pressure (34.1 percent), diabetes (14.9 percent), and sexually transmitted diseases (10.0 percent) are higher than those for people of similar age in the general population (Dixon et al., 1999; Dixon et al., in press-a). The reasons for excess medical comorbidity are unclear, yet medical comorbidity is independently associated with lower perceived physical health status, more severe psychosis and depression, and greater likelihood of a history of a suicide attempt (Dixon et al., 1999). These findings have important implications for improving patient management (Dixon et al., in press-b).
http://mentalhealth.samhsa.gov/features/surgeongeneralreport/chapter4/sec4.aspArticles from Pub Med
- Fan PL, Shu CH, Shiang JC, Kuo TS, Lung FW.
Hypertension--a possible vulnerability marker for depression in patients with end-stage renal disease.
Nephron Clin Pract. 2006;102(1):c43-50. Epub 2005 Sep 19.
PMID: 16174990 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
- Salonen P, Arola H, Nygard CH, Huhtala H.
Associations of health, dietary and job-related factors, and mental problems with cardiovascular diseases in aging.
J Nutr Health Aging. 2006 May-Jun;10(3):193-202.
PMID: 16622582 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
- Youssef RM, Moubarak II, Kamel MI.
Factors affecting the quality of life of hypertensive patients.
East Mediterr Health J. 2005 Jan-Mar;11(1-2):109-18.
PMID: 16532679 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
- Kuchel O.
Mental stress and hypertension, an evolutionary framework: some historical perspectives of the 1960 World Health Organization Prague Hypertension Meeting.
J Hypertens. 2003 Mar;21(3):639-41.
PMID: 12640260 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
- Webb MS, Gonzalez LO.
The burden of hypertension: mental representations of African American women.
Issues Ment Health Nurs. 2006 Apr;27(3):249-71.
PMID: 16484169 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
- Vaish AK, Kumar H, Agrawal CG, Chandra M, Trivedi JK, Ghatak A, Tekwani BL.
Prevalence of hypertension in psychiatric disorders.
J Assoc Physicians India . 2002 Jun;50:800-2.
PMID: 12240846 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
- Pickering TG.
Now we are sick: labeling and hypertension.
J Clin Hypertens ( Greenwich ). 2006 Jan;8(1):57-60. No abstract available.
PMID: 16407691 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
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