Psychosomatic aspects of arterial hypertension in women.

Arterial hypertension is one of the most widespread diseases in the world, both in women and men. In Poland, about 45% of the adult population suffers from arterial hypertension--it afflicts 45% of men and 36-38% of women. Arterial hypertension is a set of regulatory disorders of a complicated, multifactor etiology encompassing genetic conditions, the influence of the environment and some individual factors. Being also psychosomatic disorder it is strongly linked with improper adaptation to stress, personality traits and behavioural conditions esspecially with the type A behaviour pattern. This type of behaviour includes a strong need of achievement a tendency to dominate, and aggressiveness. The type A women--impatient, aggressive, hostile to their environment, committed to work and competitive--have a higher CVR (cardiovascular reactivity) coefficient and higher arterial blood pressure than type B. Some authors suggest that the lowering of estrogen levels in women over the age of 50 increases the frequency of occurrence of arterial hypertension. In spite of the fact that we do not have a full knowledge of the mechanisms starting the reaction chain, the awareness of these factors can help us decrease the risk of the development of the disease or hinder its progression.