Emotional Effect of Music on Blood Pressure and Heart Rate in Patients with Essential Hypertension based on Introversion and Extraversion Personality Dimensions

The present study investigated the music emotional effect on blood pressure and heart rate in patients with essential hypertension based on introversion and extraversion personality dimensions. 113 male patients with essential hypertension referred to shahid Madani Hospital in Tabriz city completed the NEO-FFI questionnaire and after obtaining acceptable scores were classified as introverted and extroverted groups (30 subjects in each group, age range 31-50, age mean 42). All groups received slow and fast rhythm of music in separate sessions with a half-hour interval between the two types of music. The blood pressure and heart rate were assessed before and after music induction. Data were analyzed by multivariate analysis of covariance. Results showed that compared with introvert patients extrovert patients obtained lower scores in systolic blood pressure after presenting music with slow rhythm. In other words, in extrovert patients, during the presentation of music with sloworhythm, the rate of systolic blood pressure decreased more than the baseline. Although the fast rhythm music was effective in physiological indices, it did not cause significant differences in two groups. Based on the obtained results it could be suggested that introvert patients experience negative emotions more than extravert patients and negative emotions cause less change in blood pressure in these patients compared with extrovert patients.