Department of Psychology, University of Illinois at Chicago, United States of America.
Department of Psychology, University of Illinois at Chicago, United States of America; Department of Psychiatry, University of Illinois at Chicago, United States of America; Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Northwestern University, United States of America.
Int J Psychophysiol. 2019 Jul;141:1-8. doi: 10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2019.04.008. Epub 2019 Apr 25.
Non-suicidal self-injury is a risk factor for suicidal behavior, particularly in females. Two prominent theories of suicide suggest that habituation to the psychophysiological aversiveness of NSSI is a mechanism by which NSSI exposure may lead to increased risk for suicide. Several laboratory studies examining the relationship between physiological habituation and suicide attempt history have yielded mixed results, potentially due to their use of broad measures of physiological arousal and/or focus on specific psychopathologies. However, no studies have examined the association between the time course (e.g., habituation, initial reactivity) of responding to aversiveness and NSSI, which may help to elucidate psychophysiological mechanisms of NSSI. Therefore, we examined habituation and initial reactivity to aversiveness (indexed by the time course of acoustic startle reflex, a well-validated measure of defensive responding) in three groups of young adult females - those with a history of NSSI, psychiatric controls matched on potential confounds (e.g., psychopathology, trauma history, demographics), and healthy controls. Results indicated that individuals with a history of NSSI exhibited blunted initial reactivity and marginally slower habituation to aversiveness relative to the two control groups. The NSSI group's insensitivity to aversiveness may reflect prior psychophysiological habituation, and may be a mechanism through which prior NSSI exposure leads to increased risk for suicidal behavior.
非自杀性自伤是自杀行为的一个风险因素，尤其是在女性中。两种主要的自杀理论表明，对 NSSI 的心理生理厌恶感的习惯化是 NSSI 暴露可能导致自杀风险增加的一种机制。几项实验室研究检查了生理习惯化与自杀企图史之间的关系，结果喜忧参半，这可能是由于它们使用了广泛的生理唤醒测量方法和/或专注于特定的精神病理学。然而，没有研究检查对厌恶感的反应的时间过程（例如，习惯化、初始反应性）与 NSSI 之间的关联，这可能有助于阐明 NSSI 的心理生理机制。因此，我们在三组年轻成年女性中检查了对厌恶感的习惯化和初始反应性（通过听觉惊跳反射的时间过程来衡量，这是一种经过充分验证的防御反应测量方法），这些女性有 NSSI 史、在潜在混杂因素（例如，精神病理学、创伤史、人口统计学）上与 NSSI 相匹配的精神病对照组，以及健康对照组。结果表明，有 NSSI 史的个体对厌恶感的初始反应性降低，且对厌恶感的习惯化速度也略有减慢，与两个对照组相比。NSSI 组对厌恶感的不敏感性可能反映了先前的心理生理习惯化，并且可能是先前 NSSI 暴露导致自杀行为风险增加的一种机制。
