SCRIPTA MEDICA (BRNO) – 75 (6): 315–320, December 2002 RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE MOODS AND BLOOD PRESSURE IN A CLINICALLY HEALTHY MAN MITSUTAKE G. 1 , CORNÉLISSEN G. 2 , OTSUKA K. 3 , DAWES C. 1 , BURCH J. 4 , RAWSON M. J. 2 , SIEGELOVÁ J. 5 , JANâÍK J. 5 , MA·EK M. 5 , PAZDÍREK J. 5 , HALBERG F. 2 1 University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada 2 University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA 3 Tokyo Women’s Medical University, Tokyo, Japan 4 Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado, USA 5 Department of Functional Diagnostics and Rehabilitation, Faculty of Medicine, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic Abstract This study explored the relation of circadian characteristics of mood to those of blood pressure and heart rate in a longitudinal record kept by a 24-year-old, clinically healthy man. Circadian rhythm characteristics, assessed for consecutive daily spans, were analysed by Pearson’s product-moment correlation. A circadian rhythm was demonstrated for all variables. The circadian amplitude of negative mood was found to correlate positively with the MESOR of systolic and diastolic blood pressure. Key words Psychic affect, Blood pressure monitoring, Clinically healthy man, Circadian variability INTRODUCTION A consistent circadian variation in human mood, self-rated along a 7-point scale (1) or otherwise, has been most apparent in clinically healthy medical students (2) and in patients (2–7). It has been suggested that a high-arousal state may be associated with heightened energy and optimism and a low-arousal state with reduced energy, less optimism and increased tension (8). The possibility of gauging tension by means of blood pressure has also been considered (9). Against this background, this study explored associations between circadian characteristics of mood and those of blood pressure and heart rate longitudinally recorded by a clinically healthy man. MATERIALS AND METHODS A clinically healthy, 34-year-old man answered the Positive and Negative Affective Scale (PANAS) questionnaire five-times a day for 82 days (between 3rd May and 27th July 2000). The two 10-item mood scales are reported to be highly internally consistent and largely uncorrelated and 315