Neurological theory of hypertension

Review of the older literature on the relationship between migraine and hypertension, written in the era before either condition could be treated, discloses a high rate of co-morbidity. A neurological theory of essential hypertension is proposed in which the two diseases are brought together into one entity. It is hypothesized that abnormally functioning serotonergic pacemaker cells in the dorsal raphe nucleus, as part of a chronic stress response, inappropriately activate and inhibit parts of the central and autonomic nervous systems, so as to cause the two conditions. This theory builds on a previously published neural theory of migraine. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.