What are the symptoms of hypertension?...

Malignant hypertension (or accelerated hypertension) is when the condition is not diagnosed until very late and may present with headaches, blurred vision and end-organ damage. Usually a trip to the doctor or hospital where blood pressure is taken for any reason will result in the discovery of the condition much earlier than this.

It is recognised that stressful situations can increase the blood pressure; if a normally patient with usually normal blood pressure has a high blood pressure only when being reviewed by a healthcare professional, this is colloquially termed white coat effect.

Hypertension is often confused with mental tension, stress and anxiety. While chronic anxiety is associated with poor outcomes in people with hypertension, it alone does not cause it.