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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
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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

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