Estresse ocupacional e hipertensão arterial sistêmica Work stress and arterial hypertension

In human beings stress is also a psychological process and the comprehensions of stressing events are affected by cognitive, affective and social relationships. Neither the situation itself nor the individual response separately defines the stress. In the job-related fields, stress is always experienced as a negative condition, and results from the incapacity of the subjects in managing job pressure or by a gap between the new demands and the ability to cope with them. Stress in excess promotes physical and mental derangements and labor discontent, resulting in dissatisfaction, endangering the capacity of workers and threatening the success of corporations. In relation to the occupational stress, it has been demonstrated the necessity to consider the great complexity of this problem. This relatively new field of study has developed rather recently, owing to the emergence of psychosomatics and cardiovascular diseases, particularly arterial hypertension secondary to job-related stress. For this reason, 24 hours ambulatory blood pressure monitoring has been proved to be an useful instrument to evaluate the behavior of blood pressure during working hours, day and nigh, besides the measurement of amplitude and variability of blood pressure. Consequently, its use is increasing steadily as an instrument of investigations in the occupational health world-wide.