Anomalous stress reactions in patients suffering from depression and anxiety.
An experiment is reported in which the forearm muscle blood flow of a group of patients with mixed depressions is compared with that of a group of patients with anxiety states. The blood flow was measured under relaxed conditions and during the presentation of a noise `stress'. The measurements obtained under stressed conditions show that, while the blood flow of those with anxiety states fell with repetition of the stress noise, that of the depressive patients increased. A similar pattern was shown by the relaxed measurements but here the difference was not statistically significant. There was also suggestion that stress produced a fall in blood flow in depressive subjects and an increase in patients with anxiety states. These results tend to support the hypothesis that depressive patients show something akin to a freeze response to stress, while patients with anxiety states show an arousal response.
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D001008:Anxiety Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology*; D001132:Arm / Q000098:blood supply*; D003863:Depression / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology*; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D005260:Female; D006185:Habituation, Psychophysiologic; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009132:Muscles / Q000098:blood supply*; D012039:Regional Blood Flow; D013315:Stress, Psychological