Regolazione delle emozioni e ipertensione arteriosa

Neurophysiologic, motor/expressive and cognitive emotional domains are central factors in the integrative processes between psyche and soma. For Emotional Regulation (ER) we mean the synergic functioning of these domains. A deficit in the cognitive elaboration of emotion (i.e. alexithymia) might determinate a dys-regulation of Autonomous Nervous System (ANS) able to explain the relationship between alexithymia and hypertension found in many studies. The aims of this research are measuring ANS reactivity of young normotensive students during emotional situations according to individual ER ability (study 1), and assessing the efficacy of a group-therapy aimed to Promoting ER ability (PROCRE) in reducing blood pressure (BP) values and in improving quality of life in hypertensive out-patients (study 2). Sixty normotensive university students (men/women=30/30, mean age=23.57) selected on the basis of high (≥52) or low (≤35) alexithymia scores (TAS-20) participated in the study 1. After a rest time lasting 14 minutes they were involved into three experimental situations different only for the emotional valence of one event (either positive= joy, happiness, gladness, or negative =anger, irritation, frustration or neutral) they were asked to think, imagine and narrate. These experimental conditions were in counter-balanced order. After each narration a physiologic recovery phase followed and the student rested quietly in silence for 10 minutes. Alexithymic students, compared to non alexithymic, showed higher systolic and diastolic BP values during baseline, narration phases and recovery time. Ninety hypertensive out-patients participated in the study 2: five groups of 12 patients (tot=60) followed PROCRE group-therapy and 30 patients in waiting list (WL) formed the control group. Participants to both groups were under similar antihypertensive drugs (medication?), were balanced for gender and alexithymia level. PROCRE groups followed 12 weekly sessions lasting 2 hours each; group-therapy consisted in emotion-focused games and emotional elaboration of everyday experiences. At the end of group-therapy each patient had an individual psychological consultation for making plans about how to use in every-day life what he learnt during group-therapy. Results showed a decrease of BP values greater in PROCRE groups rather than in WL group. In conclusion, results for young alexithymic normotensive students (study 1) with higher BP values during all experimental phases, suggest that a deficit in ER can work as a risk-factor for hypertension since youth. Results for PROCRE group-therapy (study 2), even if preliminary, point out that a psycho-health promotion permitting emotional skills development can improve physical well-being.