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@ARTICLE{Schaare:911397,
author = {Schaare, H. Lina and Blöchl, Maria and Kumral, Deniz and
Uhlig, Marie and Lemcke, Lorenz and Valk, Sofie L. and
Villringer, Arno},
title = {{M}ental health, blood pressure and the development of
hypertension},
reportid = {FZJ-2022-04680},
year = {2022},
abstract = {Hypertension (HTN) has been associated with a greater risk
of affective disorders. Paradoxically, several studies have
shown the opposite effect in which high blood pressure
relates to less depressive symptoms and greater well-being.
Here we dissolve this paradox and clarify the relationship
between mental health, blood pressure and the development of
HTN using the UK Biobank. In adjusted multiple linear
regression models, we found that the presence of a HTN
diagnosis was associated with impaired mental health (i.e.
more depressive symptoms (N = 303,771; β = 0.043; $95\%$ CI
[0.039, 0.047]; p<0.001) and lower well-being scores (N =
129,876; β = -0.057; $95\%$ CI [-0.064, - 0.050]; p<0.001))
at baseline, whereas higher systolic blood pressure (SBP)
was associated with fewer depressive symptoms (N = 303,771;
β = -0.063; $95\%$ CI [-0.067, -0.060]; p<0.001) and higher
well-being scores (N = 129,876; β = 0.057; $95\%$ CI
[0.051, 0.063]; p<0.001). These effects persisted until
follow-up (∼10 years later). To explore a potential link
between the mental health-blood pressure association and the
development of HTN, we compared participants who were
normotensive at baseline and developed HTN until follow-up
with those who stayed normotensive. Notably, the adjusted
model showed impaired mental health already at baseline in
HTN developers (i.e., before HTN diagnosis; depressive
symptoms: β = 0.060; $95\%$ CI [0.045, 0.076]; p<0.001;
well-being: β = -0.043; $95\%$ CI [-0.068, -0.017];
p<0.001), indicating that people who develop HTN might
require higher blood pressure levels for the same mental
health outcomes as normotensives. In addition, the negative
association between SBP and depressive symptoms at baseline
was moderated by HTN development (β = -0.014; $95\%$ CI
[-0.026, -0.003]; p=0.015), suggesting that the negative
relationship between mental health and blood pressure was
accentuated in people developing HTN several years before
receiving their HTN diagnosis. We further observed that
higher SBP was associated with lower emotion-related brain
activity from functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI;
β = -0.032 $95\%$ CI [-0.045, -0.019]; p<0.001). This
effect was also moderated by HTN diagnosis, suggesting an
impact of SBP and HTN on the central nervous processing of
emotions. Possible mechanisms are discussed, including
regulatory baroreceptor circuits linking arterial blood
pressure to neural processing of emotions. Overall, our
results show an interrelation between mental health and
blood pressure that may be involved in the development of
HTN. In people who develop HTN, this relationship seems to
be altered, such that higher blood pressure is required to
sustain mental health, potentially offering a novel
perspective for developing preventive and therapeutic
measures.},
cin = {INM-7},
cid = {I:(DE-Juel1)INM-7-20090406},
pnm = {5251 - Multilevel Brain Organization and Variability
(POF4-525)},
pid = {G:(DE-HGF)POF4-5251},
typ = {PUB:(DE-HGF)25},
doi = {10.1101/2022.11.04.22281936},
url = {https://juser.fz-juelich.de/record/911397},
}