Reducing blood pressure reactivity during interpersonal conflict: Effects of marital communication training
Generate an AI Snapshot to get a quick, structured summary of this paper.
A concise AI-generated summary of the paper will appear here once you click Generate AI Snapshot.
TL;DR
Communication training may provide a means to improve blood pressure control in certain individuals during marital arguments in a laboratory setting and engage in fewer hostile exchanges during marital discussions.
Abstract
Blood pressure fluctuations evoked by environmental stimuli may contribute to sustained hypertension. Mastering effective coping skills might reduce these reactions and make long-term blood pressure control easier to achieve. We evaluated the effect of communication training on blood pressure reactivity of hypertensive patients during marital arguments in a laboratory setting. Following assessment of blood pressure reactivity and basal blood pressure level, 20 patients and their partners were assigned either to (a) marital communication training or (b) an assessment-only control group. At posttest, subjects who has mastered the reflective problem-solving techniques engaged in fewer hostile exchanges during marital discussions than did the untrained controls. Trained subjects also achieved a significantly greater reduction in systolic reactivity (−8.8 mmHg) evoked by discussion tasks than did the control subjects (−3.5 mmHg). Communication training may provide a means to improve blood pressure control in certain individuals.