A Prospective Study of Cognitive Emotion Regulation Strategies and Depressive Symptoms in Patients with Essential Hypertension

The objective of the current study was to examine the relationships between cognitive emotion regulation strategies and depressive symptoms in essential hypertension patients. Both cross-sectional and prospective relationships were studied in a sample of 650 essential hypertension patients. The cognitive emotion regulation strategies accounted for considerable amounts of variance in depressive symptoms. The following subscales were significantly positively correlated with first-time measurement and follow-up measurement of depressive symptoms: self-blame, rumination, catastrophizing, and blaming others. Positive reappraisal was significantly and positively correlated with first-time measurement of depressive symptoms. In contrast, the following subscales were significantly negatively correlated with follow-up measurement of depressive symptoms: acceptance, positive refocus, refocus on planning, positive reappraisal. Results of multiple regression analyses shows that elevated levels of self-blame, rumination, catastrophizing, and blaming others predicted increases in follow-up measurement of depressive symptoms, while elevated levels of acceptance and refocus on planning predicted decreases follow-up measurement of depressive symptoms. These findings provide us with important targets for intervention programs.