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Biomedical subjects

C Perini

Publications and source records attributed to C Perini.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1995

[Validity of the Narcissism Inventory (Denecke and Hilgenstock)].

For investigating the validity of the Narzissmusinventar 27 somatic and psychic healthy men aged between 30 and 45 were tested with the Narzissmusinventar, the Fragebogen zur Erfassung von Aggressivitätsfaktoren, the State-Trait-Angstinventar and the Fragebogen zur Messung der Kontrollambitionen. Moreover a structured interview for the evaluation of type A behavior was administered. Correlative statistical analyses showed in the sense of construct validity that the dimension of the "bedrohtes Selbst" ("threatened self") is characterized by anxiety, feelings of insufficiency and aggression. The other subscales of the Narzissmusinventar correlate only with a few variables of the other tests and the speaking behavior. These subscales evaluate the narcissistic personality traits which the other instruments we used in our investigation are not able to reflect.

Adult↗
PubMed1994

A repressive coping style protecting from emotional distress in low-renin essential hypertensives.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the relationship between the behavioural characteristics and specified subgroups of patients with essential hypertension. DESIGN AND METHODS: Fifty-four patients were classified into groups with a high (n = 9), normal (n = 35) or low plasma renin activity (n = 10), and were compared with 20 normotensive subjects by psychological tests. Standardized tests were used to measure anger expression, defensiveness and the subjects' psychological status (e.g. anxiety, depression). RESULTS: A repressive coping style, defined by a high defensiveness and low anxiety levels, was found significantly more often in patients with low than in patients with high plasma renin activity and normotensive subjects. The patients with high plasma renin activity scored significantly higher on suppressed anger, anxiety and interpersonal sensitivity than did those with low plasma renin activity. The scores of the normal plasma renin activity group were similar to those of the normotensive group. CONCLUSIONS: The results underline that there is not one hypertensive 'personality'. Whereas the patients with a high plasma renin activity appear to be more susceptible to emotional conflicts, the patients with low plasma renin activity report low emotional distress and maintain an apparently well-adjusted facade.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1993

Ischemic ECG changes are found more often in asymptomatic men with a coronary prone behaviour pattern.

Type A behaviour has been related to coronary heart disease (CHD) as an independent risk factor. Therefore, ischemic electrocardiographic (ECG) changes may be more prominent in Type A than in Type B individuals. ECG abnormalities were assessed by the Cardiac Infarction Injury Score (CIIS), which has predictive power for sudden death. In 100 healthy men aged 30-45 yr, the CIIS was related to cardiovascular risk factors such as age, blood pressure, smoking, family history of CHD and behaviour pattern groups defined by the Structured Interview (46 Type A, 20 Type X and 34 Type B subjects). The distribution of the CIIS was different among the behaviour pattern groups (p < 0.05) and was shifted towards higher ischemic scores in Type A subjects. These findings suggest that clinically asymptomatic persons with Type A behaviour have a greater probability of suffering ischemic heart disease and possible sudden death.

Adult↗
PubMed1991

Suppressed aggression accelerates early development of essential hypertension.

Predictors for early development of essential hypertension were identified in a prospective study of 98 normotensive and 23 borderline hypertensive subjects of both sexes aged 18-24 years. Baseline examination included psychological tests as well as resting and stress-induced cardiovascular and neurohormonal measurements. During the 30 (+/- 4 s.d.)-month follow up, 14 out of 98 (14%) initially normotensive subjects developed borderline hypertension, while of 23 borderline hypertensive subjects, 11 (48%) remained in the borderline group (141-159/91-94 mmHg), another five (22%) increased to greater than 160/95 mmHg and seven (30%) normalized blood pressure to less than 140/90 mmHg. In the 98 normotensive subjects, the height of casual systolic blood pressure at entry was the best predictor of subsequent borderline hypertension, correctly classifying 75% of the subjects in a stepwise discriminant analysis. Stress-induced blood pressure responses, together with measures of sympathetic nervous system activity (11%) and psychological factors (6%), were relatively weak predictors of subsequent pressure classification. In the 23 borderline hypertensives, the height of systolic blood pressure induced by mental stress was the single best predictor for sustained borderline or subsequent established hypertension, classifying 74%. When all 121 subjects were taken together, the greatest increases in blood pressure were found in those subjects who had suppressed aggression, particularly those who also had normal-high or borderline blood pressure at entry. Thus, suppressed aggression emerged as a superimposed permissive factor for a steeper trajectory or acceleration of early development of hypertension.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1990

Psychosomatic factors in borderline hypertensive subjects and offspring of hypertensive parents.

Psychosomatic factors, sympathoneural and sympathoadrenal as well as cardiovascular mechanisms, were studied in 24 patients 18-24 years of age with borderline hypertension, 50 age-matched normotensive offspring of hypertensive parents, and 49 controls with no family history of hypertension. They were compared by projective and questionnaire-based psychological tests and their circulatory and neurohormonal reactivity to mental (Stroop color-word conflict test and arithmetic test) and physical stressors (orthostasis and bicycle ergometry test) were measured. Borderline hypertensive subjects externalized aggression less (p less than 0.05) but internalized it more (p less than 0.05) and were more submissive (p less than 0.05) when compared with controls. Offspring of hypertensive parents showed a similar but weaker pattern. Both risk groups reported more positive interactions with their parents (genetic risk subjects versus controls, p less than 0.05; borderline hypertensive patients versus controls, p = 0.08) and had higher state-anxiety levels (p less than 0.05). There were more subjective symptoms of beta-adrenergic receptor-mediated functions (e.g., tachycardia, tremor) in borderline hypertensive subjects and offspring of hypertensive parents, elevated heart rates (analysis of repeated measures, p less than 0.001), and enhanced plasma norepinephrine concentrations (p less than 0.05) when compared with controls. These findings in subjects at risk for the development of hypertension suggest that psychosomatic factors and sympathetic overactivity are involved in the early phase of hypertension.

Adult↗
PubMed1990

Effects of psychological and physical covariates on plasma catecholamines in borderline hypertensives and offspring of hypertensive parents.

The interpretation of plasma catecholamine measurements may be influenced by psychological and physical factors. Therefore, catecholamine concentrations were adjusted for between-subject differences by the following possible confounding factors, i.e. body-mass index, individual maximal physical work capacity, urinary sodium excretion rates and anxiety score. Subjects were 24 borderline essential hypertensives, aged 18-24 years, 50 age-matched normotensive offspring of hypertensive parents and 49 controls with no family history of hypertension studied at rest and during mental stressors (Stroop colour-word conflict test, mental arithmetic). Borderline hypertensives had consistently higher adjusted venous noradrenaline concentrations than control subjects (p less than 0.05). Adjusted plasma adrenaline concentrations were higher in borderline hypertensive subjects than in offspring of hypertensive parents during supine rest. Despite its limitations, venous plasma noradrenaline concentrations when adjusted for work capacity, body-mass, sodium excretion and anxiety suggest enhanced sympatho-neural activity in young borderline essential hypertensives.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1988

Suppressed aggression and hyperdynamic cardiovascular regulation in normotensive offspring of essential hypertensive parents.

To trace a possible association between suppressed aggression and enhanced responses of the cardiovascular system and plasma catecholamines in a "prehypertensive" state, two groups of 24 subjects with either normal blood pressure and no family history of hypertension or normal blood pressure and a positive family history of hypertension were matched for sex and age (18-24 years). Suppressed aggression was defined by the Rosenzweig Picture-Frustration test, a projective assessment of reactions to everyday stress. Before, during, as well as after application of mental stressors (Stroop color-word conflict test and mental arithmetic), the responses of blood pressure, heart rate, and venous plasma catecholamines were measured. Offspring of hypertensive parents with suppressed aggression (n = 10) had significantly higher heart rates and diastolic blood pressures than offspring of hypertensive parents without suppressed aggression (n = 14), using analyses of covariance for repeated measures to eliminate the influence of anxiety. Plasma norepinephrine responses tended to be greater in the offspring with suppressed aggression. The results suggest that in normotensive offspring of hypertensive parents, a behavioral pattern with suppressed aggression promotes a hyperdynamic cardiovascular state and enhances the hypertensive developmental process.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1986

Hyperadrenergic borderline hypertension is characterized by suppressed aggression.

The effect of suppressed aggression on the reactivity of the sympathetic nervous and cardiovascular systems has been investigated in two groups of 24 subjects each with either borderline hypertension or normal blood pressure and no family history of hypertension. Groups were matched for sex and age (18-24 years). Suppressed aggression was defined by the newly standardized Rosenzweig Picture-Frustration test, a projective method assessing the reaction to everyday stress. Responses of blood pressure, heart rate, and venous plasma catecholamines were measured before and during application of mental stressors, using the Stroop color-word conflict test and mental arithmetic. In an analysis of covariance for repeated measures, which eliminates the influence of anxiety, borderline hypertensive subjects with suppressed aggression had significantly higher heart rates and diastolic blood pressures and a greater noradrenaline reactivity than borderline hypertensive subjects without suppressed aggression or normotensive subjects. Suppressed aggression may lead to a hyperadrenergic form of early borderline hypertension and thereby contribute to higher blood pressure.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1985

Personality characteristics and renin in essential hypertension.

There may be specific personality differences between some if not all biochemically defined subgroups of patients with essential hypertension. A newly standardized projective test of reactions to frustration, a questionnaire related to such characteristics as aggressiveness and dominance, and a standardized interview were applied to 16 patients with established high renin essential hypertension and 21 patients of similar age with normal renin. High renin patients are significantly less assertive, fail to externalize their aggression, perceive frustration less and try to please others more; they have a stronger need to solve problems immediately yet tend to deny social conflicts. These tendencies are likely to create internal conflict and indicate a psychosomatic component in high renin essential hypertension.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1984

[Aggression inhibition and increased sympathetic nervous reactivity in the development of essential hypertension].

Suppressed aggression and activity of the sympathetic nervous system were assessed in two risk groups for essential hypertension, viz. 24 borderline hypertensives (18 men, 6 women, age range 18-24, 18 with a family history of hypertension) and 24 normotensive offspring of hypertensive parents, and in a control group exactly matched for age, sex and socioeconomic status. In the Rosenzweig Picture-Frustration test, both potential hypertensive groups were significantly less aggressive compared with the controls, and additionally the borderline hypertensives internalized their aggression. Plasma noradrenaline concentrations, as a marker for sympathetic nervous system activity, increased significantly before and during mental stressors (Stroop colour-word conflict test, mental arithmetic) in both groups, whereas in normotensive controls no significant increase occurred. These findings point to a psychosomatic factor in the development of essential hypertension.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1984

Changes of immunoregulatory cells induced by psychological and physical stress: relationship to plasma catecholamines.

Lymphocyte subpopulations were measured before and after physical and psychological stress in 15 healthy subjects and correlated with plasma catecholamine and cortisol levels. During psychological stress monocytes (P less than 0.05), NK (P less than 0.01), B cells (P less than 0.05) and heart rate (P less than 0.001) increased, while catecholamines remained unchanged. With physical stress granulocytes, monocytes and all lymphocyte subsets increased significantly, although B cells rose more than T cells and T (suppressor) cells more than T (helper) cells. Thus the ratio of T/B cells and of Th/Ts cells decreased (P less than 0.001 and P less than 0.01). Adrenaline and noradrenaline concentrations increased (P less than 0.001), while cortisol remained unchanged. There was a negative relationship between adrenaline and the Th/Ts cell ratio before and after stress (P less than 0.05). Lymphocyte subpopulations from a different group of 4 healthy subjects were analysed before and after isoproterenol infusion. There was a small increase in Ts and B cells only (P less than 0.1) and a decrease of the T/B cell ratio (P less than 0.05). The predominant enrichment of circulating B, Ts and NK cells during short lasting adrenergic activation, as well as the relationship of the T cell changes to plasma adrenaline, suggest an immunoregulatory effect of the sympathetic nervous system in stress.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1982

Personality, coronary-prone behaviour and adrenergic factors in essential hypertension: possible implications for cardiac prevention.

An association between high blood pressure and the coronary-prone (or type A) behaviour pattern, established as risk factors for myocardial infarction and sudden death, has been postulated on the basis of similar psychophysiological mechanisms involving the sympathetic nervous system. Psychodynamic personality profiles and type A behaviour assessment have therefore been related to biochemical markers of sympathetic overactivity, but type A behaviour scores were generally found to be low in hypertensive subjects - and lowest in those with high plasma noradrenaline. However, projective assessment of reactions to frustration during everyday stress indicates that hypertensive patients with high plasma renin activity as well as high noradrenaline have less externalized but more internalized aggression, and are submissive yet have a stronger need to resolve conflicts immediately. These incompatible tendencies result in chronic frustration. A similar high degree of suppressed anger is shared by patients at risk for coronary heart disease, and high renin patients have a higher incidence of critical cardiac events. This suggests the possibility of a 'hypertensive coronary-prone personality'. Because of their excellent antihypertensive response to chronic beta-blocker therapy, it is conceivable that high renin patients benefit most from the cardioprotective potential of beta-blocker-based antihypertensive therapy.

Adrenergic beta-Antagonists↗