Effects of anxiety on emotional reactivity, performance and vigilance, in healthy volunteers.
Healthy volunteers who participate in clinical trials usually present a specific personality profile characterized by high extroversion and low anxiety traits. Herein, we examined whether anxiety traits influence performance and vigilance, as well as reactivity for six emotions (fear, anger, disgust, sadness, happiness and a neutral state), the latter being induced by the presentation of six film excerpts. Sixty-four healthy volunteers were stratified into high and low anxiety groups on the basis of their score on the Cattell and Hamilton Anxiety Scales. They were assessed on the Digit Symbol Substitution Scale (DSST), Choice Reaction Time (CRT) and Visual Analogue Scales (VAS). Their emotional reactivity was evaluated before and after each film excerpt, on responses to the Differential Emotions Scale (Izard DES). Prior to emotional induction, high-anxious subjects presented a pattern of low positive emotions and high negative emotions. After each film excerpt, emotional reactivity was more pronounced for high-anxious subjects compared with low-anxious subjects. However, there were no significant interactions between anxiety level and the values of DSST, CRT or VAS. The present findings raise the question of the relevance of selecting healthy volunteers according to their personality traits. In future studies, anxiety level will be further investigated as a factor of response variability to drugs, by examining differences in response to psychotropic drugs as a function of this factor.
Garcia
C
C
Pharmacologie Médicale et Clinique & CPCET, CHU Timone Bat F, Marseille, France.
Philippot
P
P
Jouve
E
E
Bruguerolle
B
B
Blin
O
O
D001007:Anxiety / Q000523:psychology*; D001288:Attention; D004644:Emotions; D006801:Humans; D011930:Reaction Time; D012016:Reference Values