The aim of the present study was to compare the characteristics of cognitive emotion regulation strategies and alexithymia in individual with and without essential hypertension. This was carried on 100 patients with essential hypertension from the health centers in Urmia City who were compared with 100 healthy individuals. The participants were assessed using the Cognitive Emotion Regulation Strategies Questionnaire (CERQ) and the Farsi version of the Toronto alexithymia scale (FTAS-20). Results revealed that patients with essential hypertension had higher scores in dimensions of self-blame, other-blame, rumination, catastrophizing and had significantly lower scores in positive refocusing and positive reappraisal in comparison with healthy individuals. There were also significant differences between difficulty identifying feelings, difficulty describing feelings and externally oriented thinking between the two groups. It can be concluded that an individuals with essential hypertension are likely to use more maladaptive strategies and score higher in alexithymia. This condition may result in a variety of mental and physical problems.

Keywords: emotion, cognition, hypertension

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