Department of Psychology, Psychological Interventions and Psychotherapy, University of Zurich, Binzmühlestr. 14/04, 8050, Zurich, Switzerland.
Department of Psychology, Clinical Child Psychology and Biological Psychology, University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Switzerland.
BMC Psychol. 2021 Mar 17;9(1):44. doi: 10.1186/s40359-021-00551-4.
Individuals suffering from an anxiety disorder are characterized by chronically low heart rate variability (HRV) compared to healthy individuals during resting state conditions. However, when examining HRV and HR in response to a stressor, mixed results have been obtained when comparing anxious and non-anxious groups.
The primary aim of the present study was to investigate HRV and HR responding in 26 clinically anxious and 14 control individuals before, during and after a stressful working memory task.
Results indicate no between-group differences in HRV and HR at baseline. When starting the working memory task, the control group decreased significantly in HRV and the anxious group did not differ substantially in their change pattern from baseline to the start of the stressor. Finally, during the recovery phase of the working memory task, the clinically anxious and control individuals did not differ in their HFV or HR response compared to baseline.
From a clinical perspective, the results suggest that screening for the presence of anxiety disorders may help to identify patients with impaired HRV and HR functioning and to intervene on these important patient characteristics early in the treatment process.
与健康个体相比，患有焦虑症的个体在静息状态下的心率变异性（HRV）长期较低。然而，当检查焦虑和非焦虑组对压力源的 HRV 和 HR 反应时，比较结果存在差异。
本研究的主要目的是在一项有压力的工作记忆任务之前、期间和之后，调查 26 名临床焦虑个体和 14 名对照个体的 HRV 和 HR 反应。
结果表明，在基线时，两组之间的 HRV 和 HR 没有差异。当开始工作记忆任务时，对照组的 HRV 显著下降，而焦虑组的变化模式与基线相比没有明显差异。最后，在工作记忆任务的恢复阶段，与基线相比，临床焦虑个体和对照组个体在 HFV 或 HR 反应方面没有差异。
从临床角度来看，这些结果表明，筛查焦虑症的存在可能有助于识别 HRV 和 HR 功能受损的患者，并在治疗过程的早期对这些重要的患者特征进行干预。
