Anxiety Disorder Associated with the COVID-19 Pandemic Causes Deterioration of Blood Pressure Control in Primary Hypertensive Patients.

Abstract

ObjectiveThe new coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has spread rapidly all over the world and caused anxiety disorders. Recent studies have also shown that the prevalence of depression and anxiety increased during the COVID-19 outbreak. We aimed to evaluate the anxiety and depression levels during the pandemic and identify the effect of pandemic-related stress on blood pressure (BP) control in primary hypertensive patients.MethodA total of 142 patients with primary hypertension (HT) who continued to use the same antihypertensive drugs before and during the pandemic were included in the study. Twenty-four -hour Ambulatory Blood Pressure Monitoring (ABPM) and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) questionnaire were applied to patients. We retrospectively reviewed 24-h ABPM records of the same patients for the year before the pandemic.ResultsDaytime, nighttime and 24 -hour-systolic blood pressure (SBP) levels as well as daytime, nighttime, and 24- hour-diastolic blood pressure (DBP) levels , were significantly elevated during the COVID-19 outbreak compared to the pre-pandemic period (p<0.001). Higher HADS-A scores (HADS-A ≥7) were significantly associated with much greater increase in BP compared to the patients with lower HADS-A scores.ConclusionPsychological stress due to the COVID-19 outbreak led to worsening of the regulation of BP in controlled hypertensive patients whose antihypertensive treatments did not change.