SYNOPSIS
This paper describes a study of personality traits and psychological symptoms in hypertensive patients and in subjects with unrecognized elevation of blood pressure. The findings suggest three things. Firstly, hypertensive patients who attended an out-patient clinic showed evidence of psychological disability. Secondly, undiagnosed hypertensives were not distinguished from normotensives according to a variety of questionnaire variables. Thirdly, the existence of a hypertensive personality profile described in great detail by some writers, was not confirmed.