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Cardiovascular Disorders

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Psychological Managements for Psychosomatic Disorders

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Abstract

It is easier to understand psychological management of this disorder if one is acquainted with the main strands of research on hypertension in general. For a comprehensive review the reader is referred to Brod [1]. In animals and man variable vascular reactivity to stressors such as pain and cold has long been felt to be in part genetically determined, and the same is felt about individual variability of response to emotional threats. Racehorse owners and breeders of dogs and cattle would be amazed that anyone should think otherwise. However, it has been fashionable for some doctors, sociologists and psychologists to attribute human behaviour only to environmental factors. After Dahl et al. [2, 3] had shown that one strain of rat was sensitive (S) and another resistent (R) to experimentally induced hypertension, Groen et al. [4] decided to find out whether the two strains differed in behaviour; they found that R rats were exploratory and aggressive and S rats the reverse. It had been Groen’s clinical experience of typical behaviour in hypertensive people which led him to pose the question in the first place.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. 51, Anglesea Road, Ipswich, IPI 3PJ, UK

    J. W. Paulley MD, FRCP, DSc (Hon) (Formerly Consultant Physician to the Ipswich Hospitals)

  2. Department Amsterdam University Hospital, Wilhelmina Gasthuis, Velazquezstraat 13, 1077 NG, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    H. E. Pelser MD (Formerly Senior Physician and Head Endocrinological Outpatient)

Authors
  1. J. W. Paulley MD, FRCP, DSc (Hon)
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  2. H. E. Pelser MD
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© 1989 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Paulley, J.W., Pelser, H.E. (1989). Cardiovascular Disorders. In: Psychological Managements for Psychosomatic Disorders. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-73731-2_8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-73731-2_8

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-19298-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-73731-2

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