Lynch P, Bakal D A, Whitelaw W, Fung T
Division of Psychology, Foothills Hospital, Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
Psychosom Med. 1991 Jan-Feb;53(1):80-9. doi: 10.1097/00006842-199101000-00007.
This report represents a pilot investigation of the role of chest muscle electromyographic (EMG) activity in developing panic episodes. Chest EMG activity was obtained as part of a larger study examining ventilatory differences between panic sufferers and normal controls. Frontalis EMG, heart rate, and minute ventilation (breathing rate and tidal volume) were also obtained during the study. The ventilatory procedure involved exposing the subjects to three periods of carbon dioxide gas inhalations (1%, 3%, 5%; balance oxygen). Subjective measures of frightening cognitions and body sensations were obtained across the inhalation phases as well. The panic disorder subjects were divided, on the basis of subjective anxiety ratings obtained throughout the study, into high anxious (HA) and low anxious (LA) panic disorder groups. The HA panic disorder patients exhibited significantly higher chest EMG activity than the LA panic disorder patients and controls across all phases of the experiment. In addition, the chest EMG predicted, better than the other physiologic measures, the number of frightening cognitions and sensations reported by the subjects during the baseline and 5% CO2 inhalation phases. Overall, the results were supportive of the further study of chest wall EMG activity in the pathogenesis of panic attacks.
本报告是关于胸肌肌电图（EMG）活动在惊恐发作发展过程中作用的初步研究。胸肌EMG活动是一项更大规模研究的一部分，该研究旨在考察惊恐症患者与正常对照者之间的通气差异。在研究过程中还获取了额肌EMG、心率和分钟通气量（呼吸频率和潮气量）。通气程序包括让受试者吸入三个阶段的二氧化碳气体（1%、3%、5%；其余为氧气）。在吸入阶段还获取了关于恐惧认知和身体感觉的主观测量数据。根据整个研究过程中获得的主观焦虑评分，将惊恐障碍患者分为高焦虑（HA）和低焦虑（LA）惊恐障碍组。在实验的所有阶段，HA惊恐障碍患者的胸肌EMG活动均显著高于LA惊恐障碍患者和对照组。此外，与其他生理测量指标相比，胸肌EMG能更好地预测受试者在基线期和吸入5%二氧化碳阶段报告的恐惧认知和感觉的数量。总体而言，这些结果支持进一步研究胸壁EMG活动在惊恐发作发病机制中的作用。
