Interest in the role of cerebrovascular disease in the etiopathogenesis of depression has grown substantially in the past few years, with the earlier concept of "arteriosclerotic depression"1 now largely superseded by the term "vascular depression"2,3 in an attempt to develop this concept in line with that of vascular dementia. There is ample evidence that depression is more common in patients with vascular risk factors than in those without them,4 even when controlling for confounding factors such as age.5 In studies of depression in cerebrovascular disease without clinical or radiological evidence of stroke, hypertension is the most commonly studied variable. However, there is conflicting evidence both for6 and against7 an association between depression and hypertensive disease.