Greater pressor reactivity in women with pre-eclampsia is not related to specific psychological or emotional stressors.

To investigate whether emotional or psychosocial factors could be significantly related with the development of pre-eclampsia, 15 pregnant women with early diagnosis of pre-eclampsia and 15 normotensive pregnant controls of comparable age (23-37 yrs), gestational age (10-37 wks), parity (70% primiparous), amount of instruction and marital status underwent a blood pressure monitoring during a specific psychological assessment based on a semistructured interview followed by the administration of three different questionnaires (SCL-90R, PSQ-R, QRS). Systolic and diastolic blood pressure and hearth rate were measured at 2-minute intervals by an automatic device both during the interview and the questionnaires’ administration. Both systolic and diastolic responses were significantly increased in both groups during the interview (SBP= 15 vs 10 %, DBP= 28 vs 15,8 %), whereas no differences were observed in the blood pressure while answering questionnaires. Conversely, differences in questionnaire responses between groups were not statistically significant. Present results confirm a greater pressor reactivity in these women with pre-eclampsia but does not specifically support that this was related to psychological or emotional stress.