Trait anger experience was correlated with elevated resting blood pressure, though the relationship was small and highly variable, and complicated by participant selection bias.
Meta-Analysis
Is trait anger associated with elevated resting blood pressure and essential hypertension?
Trait anger has a small and highly variable correlation with elevated resting blood pressure, complicated by selection bias and measurement reliability.
A series of meta-analyses were conducted to assess whether anger is related to essential hypertension. The present review also considered the relevance of the distinction between anger experience and anger expression, the effect of participant selection bias, and the white-coat hypertension effect for the anger-blood pressure (BP) association. Anger experience was correlated with elevated BP, but the relationship was small and highly variable. When positive effects emerged, both participant selection and the reliability of BP measurement posed interpretational problems. Persons high in anger are not merely exhibiting elevated BP in response to testing, so a white-coat effect is not evident. Being labeled as hypertensive may contribute to higher anger scores, however. The review suggests lines of future research concerning associations between trait anger and blood pressure.
Suls et al. (Sun,) conducted a meta-analysis in Essential hypertension. Trait anger was evaluated on Resting blood pressure. Trait anger experience was correlated with elevated resting blood pressure, though the relationship was small and highly variable, and complicated by participant selection bias.