Melzig Christiane A, Weike Almut I, Hamm Alfons O, Thayer Julian F
Department of Biological and Clinical Psychology, University of Greifswald, Germany.
Int J Psychophysiol. 2009 Feb;71(2):109-17. doi: 10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2008.07.013. Epub 2008 Jul 28.
Anticipatory anxiety, which can be indexed by the startle potentiation to a threat of shock, has been implicated in the development of panic disorder. Large individual differences exist in startle potentiation to threat of shock but few differences have been found between panic patients in general and non-anxious controls. The present studies explored resting heart rate variability (HRV) as a source of individual differences in startle potentiation in students at risk for panic disorder and in unmedicated panic patients.
Participants in Study 1 were 22 students high and 21 students low in anxiety sensitivity (AS). Nine unmedicated panic patients and 15 matched non-anxious controls were included in Study 2. Startle potentiation to the threat of shock was examined as a function of AS (Study 1) and diagnostic category (Study 2) as well as resting HRV.
Whereas no differences in startle potentiation were found as a function of AS or panic disorder diagnosis in general, both studies revealed that low resting HRV was associated with exaggerated startle responses to the threat of shock.
The present results replicate and extend the sparse literature on fear-potentiated startle in panic disorder. Low HRV was associated with more pronounced startle potentiation to both explicit and contextual cues. Thus, low HRV may be a useful endophenotype for at least some anxiety disorders.
预期性焦虑可通过惊吓增强对电击威胁的反应来衡量，它与惊恐障碍的发展有关。在对电击威胁的惊吓增强方面存在很大的个体差异，但一般惊恐障碍患者与非焦虑对照组之间几乎没有差异。本研究探讨静息心率变异性（HRV）作为惊恐障碍高危学生和未服药惊恐障碍患者惊吓增强个体差异的一个来源。
研究1的参与者为22名高焦虑敏感性（AS）学生和21名低焦虑敏感性学生。研究2纳入了9名未服药的惊恐障碍患者和15名匹配的非焦虑对照组。研究惊吓增强对电击威胁的反应，将其作为AS（研究1）和诊断类别（研究2）以及静息HRV的函数。
虽然总体上未发现惊吓增强在AS或惊恐障碍诊断方面存在差异，但两项研究均显示，静息HRV较低与对电击威胁的惊吓反应过度有关。
目前的结果重复并扩展了关于惊恐障碍中恐惧增强惊吓反应的少量文献。低HRV与对明确和情境线索的惊吓增强更为明显有关。因此，低HRV可能至少对某些焦虑症来说是一种有用的内表型。
