Department of Psychology, University of Turin, Via Verdi 10, 10124, Turin, Italy.
Internal Medicine and Hypertension Division, Department of Medical Sciences, AOU Città Della Salute E Della Scienza Di Torino, University of Turin, Via Genova 3, 10126, Turin, Italy.
Curr Cardiol Rep. 2023 Jul;25(7):711-724. doi: 10.1007/s11886-023-01894-7. Epub 2023 May 22.
Personality characteristics, such as alexithymia, may lead to alterations in the autonomic nervous system functionality, predisposing individuals to an increased risk of hypertension (HTN). The present meta-analysis aimed to quantify the presence of alexithymia in people with HTN and to assess for potential sources of heterogeneity between studies. PubMed, PsycINFO and Scopus databases were systematically searched, using the following strings: ("alexithymia" OR "alexithymic") AND ("hypertension" OR "hypertensive"). Data were meta-analyzed with random-effects models.
A total of 13 studies met the inclusion criteria. The prevalence of alexithymia in people with and without HTN were obtained from 5 studies (26.3% vs 15.0%; pooling of odd ratios, 3.15 [95% CI, 1.14;8.74]), whereas the mean level of alexithymia between people with and without HTN was obtained from 7 studies Hedges g, 1.39 [95% CI, -0.39;3.16]). There was a significant association between alexithymia prevalence and year of article publication (ĝ = -0.04; 95% CI, -0.07;-0.01), whereas no significant relationship was detected between the former and both sex and age. Findings revealed a greater prevalence of alexithymia in people with HTN than in participants without HTN. These findings suggest that alexithymia may contribute to both the onset and persistence of HTN symptomatology. However, future research is needed to clarify this association.
人格特征，如述情障碍，可能导致自主神经系统功能改变，使个体易患高血压（HTN）。本荟萃分析旨在量化 HTN 患者中述情障碍的存在，并评估研究间异质性的潜在来源。系统检索了 PubMed、PsycINFO 和 Scopus 数据库，使用了以下字符串：（“述情障碍”或“述情障碍”）和（“高血压”或“高血压”）。使用随机效应模型对数据进行荟萃分析。
共有 13 项研究符合纳入标准。从 5 项研究中获得了 HTN 患者和非 HTN 患者中述情障碍的患病率（分别为 26.3%和 15.0%；合并比值比，3.15[95%CI，1.14;8.74]），而从 7 项研究中获得了 HTN 患者和非 HTN 患者之间述情障碍的平均水平（Hedges g，1.39[95%CI，-0.39;3.16]）。述情障碍患病率与文章发表年份之间存在显著相关性（ĝ=-0.04；95%CI，-0.07；-0.01），而与性别和年龄之间无显著相关性。研究结果表明，HTN 患者中述情障碍的患病率高于无 HTN 参与者。这些发现表明，述情障碍可能与 HTN 症状的发生和持续存在有关。然而，需要进一步的研究来阐明这种关联。
