Emotions and stress responses in psychopathology

Autonomic Reactivity, Emotions and Stress Response in Psychopathology Carlo Pruneti, MS, PhD, PsyD; Federico Fontana, MS; Elena Carrozzo, MS; Chiara Fante, MS Background. In the clinical field, a lot of different studies have shown the possibility to describe specific physiological patterns related to some psychopathological syndromes. The principal aim of this study is to verify the different patterns in the ANS arousal shown by five psychopathological groups and a control group. Eighty-nine subjects were examined in an outpatient Clinical Centre. The following diagnoses were made according to the DSM IV-TR criteria: generalized anxiety disorder (GAD; n = 35), major depression episode (MDE; n = 13), panic attack disorder (PAD; n = 14), obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD; n = 10), anorexia nervosa (AN, restricted type; n = 9). All subjects underwent a continuous and simultaneous registration of four physiological parameters strictly connected to the autonomic arousal: skin conductance response (SCR), heart rate (HR), peripheral temperature (PT), and 222 Appl Psychophysiol Biofeedback (2011) 36:217–229 123 electromyography of the frontal muscle (EMG). All parameters were continuously registered in three consecutive phases: baseline (registration at rest), stress presentation, and recovery. Results from the statistical analysis have shown that in GAD patients and PAD patients, SCR mean values are higher than MDE and OCD. Furthermore, the HR response is also higher in GAD than in the other three groups. So OCD and MDE patients seem to be characterized by a flattened profile of all the considered parameters. Obtained results confirm the relevance of the psycho physiological evaluation into a multidimensional assessment suggesting the possibility of a new tool for the differential diagnosis, represented by a specific and typical pattern of autonomic response for some psychopathological syndromes. Carlo Pruneti, PhD, PsyD University of Parma 10 Borgo Carissimi Parma, PR I 43100 Italy carlo.pruneti@unipr.it