Coping With the Diagnosis of Hypertension: An Illustration of a Conceptual Model

Abstract

Hypertension is a chronic condition with few subjective symptoms or limiting characteristics, but one that requires life-long medication and medical surveillance if cardiovascular sequelae are to be reduced. Advances in the development of efficacious therapy in recent years have greatly simplified the medical management of hypertension. However, in terms of the human experience of illness, the demands of adapting to the diagnosis of hypertension are only recently being recognized. Although some effects of the treatment of hypertension on the individual, such as the cost and side effects of medications, are easily understood, other aspects of the disease experience are less apparent and relate to possible adverse psychological and behavioural consequences of the disease label itself. The use of the term labelling in this context refers to the act of telling the patient a diagnosis term for a condition. This paper, which is based on a much more extensive study (Milne, Logan, & Flanagan, 1983) will review the relevant literature on the adverse effects of labelling individuals as "hypertensive" and offers a model that explains why these effects may occur. The model is based on Lipowski's (1970) conceptualization of coping with a psychological illness, but shows the particular application in hypertension.