Blood pressure normal at home higher at doctors?

Answer 1

When your blood pressure (BP) is normal at home but higher at the doctor's office, this is called "white coat hypertension." Some individuals are more anxious in a hospital or doctor's office; they may or may not appear to act differently, yet their BP is elevated.

The opposite condition (BP is lower at the doctor's office) is called "masked hypertension."

Ambulatory monitoring (BP is automatically measured for 24 hrs during normal daily activities) has been used to examine these phenomena.

Both conditions had tended to be dismissed as little more than curiosities. However, a recent study in the journal Hypertension suggests that these are associated with development of hypertension years later. Here is a WebMD link: http://www.webmd.com/hypertension-high-blood-pressure/news/20090629/white-coat-hypertension-not-benign