Research Institute of Health Sciences, Scientific-Technical Services and University Research Institutes, University of Balearic Islands, Valldemossa Road, km. 7.5, 07122, Palma, Balearic Islands, Spain.
Eur Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 2017 Dec;26(12):1501-1510. doi: 10.1007/s00787-017-1009-8. Epub 2017 May 27.
Maladaptive patterns of cardiac adjustment to stress in adolescents may reveal their vulnerability to anxiety disorders (ADs). Traditional research in this field has focused on anxiety levels, whereas the time course of anxiety has rarely been considered. Nevertheless, since overall anxiety decreases as adolescence progresses, increasing time courses are clinically relevant and can be associated with maladaptive contextual adjustment. In this study, the cardiac pattern of adjustment to stress in adolescents with increasing anxiety was analysed. A sample of 44 adolescents (M = 14.88 years, SD = 0.53, 45.45% boys) were exposed to a socially relevant stress induction protocol, and their cardiac functioning was recorded. Participants with a trajectory of increasing anxious symptomatology over a 12-month period (n = 24) showed attenuated heart rate levels in the stage of maximum stress in comparison to their non-increasing anxious counterparts (p < 0.05), as well as a heightened pattern of sample entropy throughout the stress induction (p < 0.05). These findings suggest a loss of cardiac flexibility in those adolescents at risk of ADs when confronting an acute stressor.
青少年对压力的心脏适应模式失调可能揭示了他们易患焦虑症（AD）的脆弱性。该领域的传统研究集中在焦虑水平上，而很少考虑焦虑的时间进程。然而，由于随着青春期的进展，整体焦虑水平会降低，因此增加的时间进程在临床上是相关的，并可能与适应不良的环境调整有关。在这项研究中，分析了焦虑程度增加的青少年对压力的心脏适应模式。研究样本包括 44 名青少年（M=14.88 岁，SD=0.53，45.45%为男性），他们接受了一项与社会相关的应激诱发方案，记录了他们的心脏功能。在 12 个月的时间内焦虑症状呈增加趋势的参与者（n=24）与焦虑症状无增加的参与者相比，在最大应激阶段的心率水平降低（p<0.05），以及在整个应激诱导过程中样本熵的模式升高（p<0.05）。这些发现表明，在面临急性应激源时，那些有患 AD 风险的青少年的心脏灵活性丧失。
