Data about the relationship between anger and anger expression and hypertension are controversial. Anger is useful when it appears for a short time and in mild severity, whereas it may be destructive when it is continuous or severe. In this study it was aimed to compare the anger level and anger expression of patients with essential hypertension with those of a healthy control group. Seventy male patients with essential hypertension and 70 healthy matched controls were included in the study. All participants were asked to complete the Trait Anger Expression Inventory and Sociodemographic Data Form. The mean trait anger score of patients with essential hypertension (21.9±5.2) was significantly higher than that of the control group (19.6±6.2) (p<0.05). There were no statistically significant differences between the two groups with respect to the mean anger-inside, anger- outside and anger-control scores (p>0.05). The findings of the present study indicate that trait anger levels of patients with essential hypertension are higher. Increasing skills of hypertensive patients about controlling and coping with their anger may contribute to the management of hypertension. Further longitudinal studies are needed to investigate the effect of anger level on the development of essential hypertension.
Keywords: Essential hypertension, anger level, anger expression
