Greater Pressor Reactivity in Women with Pre-Eclampsia is Not Related to Specific Psychological or Emotional Stressors

Abstract

To investigate whether emotional or psychosocial factors could be significantly related with the development of pre-eclampsia, 15 pregnant women with early diagnosis of pre-eclampsia and 15 normotensive pregnant controls of comparable age (23–37 yr.), gestational age (10–37 wk.), parity (70% primiparous), amount of instruction, and marital status underwent a blood pressure monitoring during a specific psychological assessment based on a semistructured interview followed by the administration of three different questionnaires: the Symptom Checklist 90–Revised, the Perceived Stress Questionnaire–Recent, and the Questionnaire about Social Relationships. Systolic and diastolic blood pressure and heart rate were measured at 2-min. intervals by an automatic device both during the interview and the questionnaires' administration. Both systolic and diastolic responses were significantly increased in both groups during the interview (ΔSBP = 15 vs 10%; ΔDBP = 28 vs 15.8%), whereas no differences were observed in blood pressure while answering questionnaires. Conversely, differences in questionnaire responses between groups were not statistically significant. Present results confirm a greater pressor reactivity in these women with pre-eclampsia but does not specifically support that this was related to psychological or emotional stress.