Stress Center Peer Support

Hi folks. I have high blood pressure. I'm on Bp medication. Pressure is fine at home and work. It's around 107/61. But when I go the the doctors office it shoots up to 150/99. I think I worry to much at the while waiting for them to take my blood pressure. Any advice out there?

It is called "white coat syndrome". Doctors are very familiar with it and that is why they want you to monitor your blood pressure at home, so they can get a more true reading. There is nothing abnormal about--it happens to lots of people--they start stressing out at the doctor's office. Ask you doctor about it at the next appointment and he/she will corroborate what I told you. If your BP is in the normal range at home, sounds like your meds are working fine.

Hi ya Mobilizer1965 and welcome to the forum!

I am the same way. I have mild hi BP, controlled very well by med, and my BP often goes up when I am in other doctor's office other than my general MD. In fact, I asked the very same question to him in October last year. He said many people suffer the same thing. In fact the medical community created a pseudo-illness name: White Coat Syndrome. (Drs where white coats, and people are afraid of the dr's office.) He knows I have big anxiety about heart health so to allay my cardiac concerns, he did an EKG. It was normal.

This Syndrome was further underscored when the following month I went to a gastrointerologist I never saw before. BP was normal.

I would surmise that both people with anxiety and those who don't get scared when in a medical office. Unfortunately us anxiety folks get the fear more.

Hope that helps.

Hey again, samcat!

OMG! You heard of White Coat Syndrome also? Did you see my dr too? :p

No Charlie Brown. You are a stitch!! It is just really common, so lots of people know about it. Even my vet talks about it with my two cats--both have cardiac issues and one of them is in chronic renal failure and has high BP that she takes amlodipine for. So even animals get it--hey, they don't like going to the doctor either! Especially when they know blood will be drawn out of their neck. That hurts!!

Now I am really surprised. Cats get White Coat too? Wow!

Sorry about your cats' health . I had a cat several years ago. A sweet and cute tuxedo cat. I was also suprised when the vet told me he had asthma. Again: I didn't know cats (and dogs/animals) got human diseases.

I get my cat's heart meds at Walgreens. They don't make cardiac meds for cats, so you have to cut the pills into quarters. It is amazing what cats and dogs get--they have a lot of the same diseases we do, only they are usually treated differently because they have a different physiology than a human.

I would imagine that any animal could get white coat syndrome once they have learned to fear what goes on at the vet's.

You learn something new everyday.

If the vet had told me my pet was nervous or anxious, I would have split my Xanax with my cat. LOL!

I have this same syndrome and so when I go to the Dr the nurses know to take my BP twice. Once when I get there and once right before I leave the exam room. It's no big deal and the nurses seem to be cool with it. It always goes way back down to normal.

Jill~

Me too. It goes down after awhile. But it still sucks though. I have too take a physical once a year for my job. I dread it. Before I go into the office, my blood pressure is normal. 107/61. But as soon as they bring in the blood pressure monitor,BAM I get nervous. Pressure reads 150/92. Is there a seditive for this? I only feel this why in the doctors office. Other than that my life is carefree of stress or anxiety.