High Blood Pressure may Blunt Ability of Recognizing Emotions

A new study conducted by researchers at Clemson University in United States suggests that people who are suffering from hypertension were likely to have reduced ability in recognizing emotional aspects such as anger and fear. The study was led by Dr James McCubbin who said that hypertension patients suffered from what he called “emotional dampening” and said that their understanding of emotions was similar to when reading an email without any smiley faces which are used to express emotions through words.

Dr McCubbin enrolled 106 African American people in the study where he conducted a special test to check the volunteers’ ability to recognize emotions. He said that the ability to recognize emotions was weaker among those who had hypertension.

“It's like living in a world of email without smiley faces. We put smiley faces in emails to show when we are just kidding. Otherwise some people may misinterpret our humor and get angry”, Dr McCubbin said. The study has been published in the journal Psychosomatic Medicine.

Source-Medindia