Blood pressure changes highlight gender differences in emotional reactivity to arousing pictures.

The current study was aimed at investigating the effects of gender on the magnitude and patterning of blood pressure responses to specific pleasant and unpleasant, arousing visual stimuli. Systolic and diastolic blood pressure (SBP and DBP), as well as heart rate (HR) and skin conductance (SCR) responses were investigated during picture viewing in 21 female and 25 male students. The pattern of SCR and HR reactivity across emotional categories was found to be similar for men and women.

The white-coat effect is unrelated to the difference between clinic and daytime blood pressure and is associated with greater reactivity to public speaking.

Objective: To compare the blood pressure (BP) response to doctor's visit with the BP reaction to a psycho-social challenge and with the difference between clinic and daytime BP (DeltaC-D).

Subjects: We studied 64 young stage-1 hypertensive subjects and 33 normotensive controls.

Main Outcome Measures: Relationship between direct and surrogate measure of white-coat effect (WCE) and assessment of BP response to public speaking in subjects with normal or increased reaction to BP measurement.