Psychosomatic Medicine 17:291-310 (1955)
© 1955 American Psychosomatic Society

Influence of Emotional Variables in Evaluation of Hypotensive Agents

¹ Department of Internal Medicine, Southwestern Medical School of the University of Texas, Dallas, Texas

The influence of variables created by emotional factors impinging on the patient and the investigator has been systematically examined during the course of investigations of the pharmacologic effects of a number of potent hypotensive agents.

Hospitalization, either as an in-patient or out-patient, the investigator-subject relationship, and life situations of stressful content have all been noted as capable of potentiating, masking, or completely counteracting the specific effects on blood pressure, to an extent which often makes it impossible to precisely define the role of the hypertensive agent, per se. Similar considerations apply to the evaluation of symptomatic improvement and production of side effects.

This evidence serves to emphasize the need for continued critical appraisal of the specific value of the agents widely promulgated for the management of hypertensive vascular disease. In addition it points up the degree to which physiological variations can be induced in this disease by psychological influences.