"The writing is crisp, clear, and personal. Shapiro deals masterfully with conflicting views as to whether hypertension is a disease, a neuroregulatory behavior of arterial pressure secondary to adjustments to life experience or simply an aspect of other disorders....a thorough, well-balanced critique of what has been learned about hypertension during the past one hundred years." —Integrative Physiological and Behavioral Science
"Dr. Shapiro has long been regarded as the most knowledgeable researcher in the Council for High Blood Pressure Research in the area of behavioral medicine as it relates to the pathogenesis, pathophysiology, and treatment of hypertensive diseases....the behavioral and neurophysiological sequences that he postulates provide a realistic and working hypothesis for the participation of stress in the overall mosaic of hypertension. It is to this point that clinicians will find this highly readable discussion meaningful in relating with patients regarding their deep-seated concerns about stress and anxieties in the expression of their hypertensive disease....Furthermore, the reasoning presented by the author also is 'must reading' for those scientists and members of the lay media who consistently attempt to search for simplistic or single explanations for the causation and treatment of disease." —Hypertension
Contents: Acknowledgments. Historical Considerations. Reactivity and Blood Pressure. Variability of Blood Pressure. The Hypertensive Personality: A Physiologic and Psychologic Reconciliation. Behavior and Antihypertensive Therapy. Nonpharmacological Threatment of Hypertension. Compliance with Therapy. Summary, Conclusions, and Future Goals.