The influence of mental health and state on blood pressure variability
Research type
Research Study
Full title
The influence of mental health and state on blood pressure variability: a cross sectional pilot study
IRAS ID
217418
Contact name
Teck Khong
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Joint Research and Enterprise Office, St George's University of London
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 6 months, 30 days
Research summary
Patients with mental illness including depression and anxiety have greater risk of strokes, heart and kidney disease (cardiovascular disease). However, it is not known exactly why this is. Available research suggests that having greater variation in blood pressure (BP) can lead to greater risk of cardiovascular (CV) disease. Therefore, it is possible that the increase in CV risk in patients with mental illness is – at least in part, explained by greater variation and fluctuations in their BP.
As a first step in testing this possibility, we wish to understand if mood affects the degree of fluctuation in BP in patients without mental illness. Hence, we wish to ask consecutive out-patients attending their routine appointment to have their BP measured over 24-hours with a monitor at the Blood Pressure Unit at St George’s Hospital to complete a 5-10 minute self-administered validated questionnaire about some of the symptoms of depression and anxiety. Our aim is to see if there is any relationship between having some of the symptoms of depression or anxiety (collated from their questionnaire responses), or, if having more of these symptoms is associated with greater fluctuations in BP (recorded from their pre-arranged routine BP monitoring.
If either are shown, this might give us a clue that patients with mental illness also have greater BP fluctuations – and which may partly explain their increased risk of CV disease. If this is the case, this may influence future research and how we manage blood pressure, particularly in patients with symptoms of or diagnoses of mental illness.
We plan to conduct this pilot study as a BSc student project over 4-6 months in the first instance.
REC name
North East - Newcastle & North Tyneside 2 Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
16/NE/0404
Date of REC Opinion
5 Dec 2016
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion