Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-4rdpn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-03T08:55:45.676Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Phasic Cardiac and Electrodermal Reactions to Idiographic Stimuli in Obsessional Subjects

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 June 2009

Frank Eves  and
Philip Tata
Frank Eves
Affiliation:
St George's Hospital Medical School, London
Philip Tata
Affiliation:
St George's Hospital Medical School, London
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This study investigated short latency cardiac and electrodermal responses in obsessional subjects with cognitive rituals. Three key phrases from anxiety provoking and from neutralizing ruminations were selected as discrete stimuli and presented through a loudspeaker. In addition, three relatively novel phrases were employed. Whereas the anxiety provoking phrases elicited cardiac acceleration, decreases in heart rate followed the novel stimuli. These data suggest that defensive and orienting responses had been elicited by anxiety provoking and novel stimuli, respectively. In contrast, only minimal cardiac reactions were evoked by phrases from the neutralizing rituals. For the electrodermal data, no reliable distinction between the three categories of stimuli was observed. The possible utility of this paradigm as a measure of treatment outcome is discussed.

Type
Research Article
Information
Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy , Volume 17 , Issue 1 , January 1989 , pp. 71 - 82
Copyright
Copyright © British Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies 1989

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bernstein, A. S. and Taylor, K. W. (1979). The interaction of stimulus information with potential stimulus significance in eliciting the skin conductance orienting response. In The Orienting Response in Humans, Kimmel, H. D., van Olst, E. H. and Orlebeke, J. F. (Eds.) Lawrence Erlbaum, New Jersey, 499–519.Google Scholar
Bohlin, G. and Kjellberg, A. (1979). Orienting activity in two-stimulus paradigms. In The Orienting Response in Humans, Kimmel, H. D., van Olst, E. H. and Orlebeke, J. F. (Eds.) Lawrence Erlbaum, New Jersey, 169–197.Google Scholar
Boulougouris, J. C., Rabavilas, A. D. and Stefanis, C. (1977). Psychophysiological responses in obsessive—compulsive patients. Behavioural Research and Therapy 15, 221–230.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fowles, D. C., Christie, M. J., Edelberg, R., Grings, W. W., Lykken, D. T. and Venables, P. H. (1981). Publication recommendations for electrodermal measurements. Psychophysiology 18, 232–239.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fredrikson, M. (1981). Orienting and defensive reactions to phobic and conditioned fear stimuli in phobics and normals. Psychophysiology 18, 456–465.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Graham, F. K. (1979). Distinguishing among orienting, defense and startle reflexes. In The Orienting Response in Humans, Kimmel, H. D., van Olst, E. H. and Orlebeke, J. F. (Eds.) Lawrence Erlbaum, New Jersey, 137–167.Google Scholar
Grayson, J. B., Nutter, D. and Mavissakalian, M. (1980). Psychophysiological assessment of imagery in obsessive compulsives: A pilot study. Behavioural Research and Therapy 18, 590–593.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Grayson, J. B., Foa, E. B. and Steketee, G. (1982). Habituation during exposure treatment: distraction vs attention-focusing. Behavioural Research and Therapy 20, 323–328.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hare, R. D. and Blevings, G. (1975 a). Conditional orienting and defense responses. Psychophysiology 12, 289–297.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hare, R. D. and Blevings, G. (1975 b). Defensive responses to phobic stimuli. Biological Psychology 3, 1–3.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hodes, R. L., Cook, E. W. III and Lang, P. J. (1985). Individual differences in autonomic responses: Conditioned association or conditioned fear? Psychophysiology 22, 545–560.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hodgson, R. T. and Rachman, S. (1972). The effect of contamination and washing in obsessional patients. Behavioural Research and Therapy 10, 111–117.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hornsveld, P. H. T, Kraaimat, F. W. and van Dan-Baggen, R. M. J. (1979). Anxiety/discomfort and handwashing in obsessive—compulsive and psychiatric control patients. Behavioural Research and Therapy 17, 223–228.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Klorman, R. and Ryan, R. M. (1980). Heart rate, contingent negative variation and evoked potentials during anticipation of affective stimulation. Psychophysiology 17, 513–523.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lang, P. J. (1979). A bio-informational theory of emotional imagery. Psychophysiology 17, 179–192.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rabavilas, A. D. and Boulougouris, J. C. (1974). Physiological accompaniments of ruminations, flooding and thought-stopping in obsessive patients. Behavioural Research and Therapy 12, 239–243.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rachman, S. and Hodgson, R. T. (1974) Synchrony and desynchrony in fear and avoidance. Behavioural Research and Therapy 12, 311–318.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rachman, S. and Hodgson, R. T. (1980). Obsessions and compulsions, Prentice Hall: New Jersey.Google Scholar
Sartory, G., Eves, F. and Foa, E. (1987). Maintenance of within-session habituation of the cardiac and electrodermal responses to phobic stimulation. Journal of Psychophysiology 1, 21–34.Google Scholar
Seligman, M. E. P. (1971). Phobias and preparedness. Behavioural Therapy 2, 307–320.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Siddle, D. A. T. and Heron, P. A. (1976). Effects of length of training and amount of tone frequency change on amplitude of autonomic components of the orienting response. Psychophysiology 13, 281–287.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Siddle, D. A. T., Kyriacou, C., Heron, P. A. and Mathews, W. A. (1979). Effects of change in verbal stimuli on the skin conductance response component of the orienting response. Psychophysiology 16, 34–40.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Turpin, G. (1986). Effects of stimulus intensity on autonomic responding: The problem of differentiating orienting and defensive reflexes. Psychophysiology 23, 1–14.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Submit a response

Comments

No Comments have been published for this article.