Pupillary light reflex in panic disorder. A trial using audiovisual stimulation.
BACKGROUND
Although many previous studies reported abnormalities of autonomic function in patients with panic disorder (PD), almost all targets in those studies primarily focused on cardiovascular autonomic functions. In the present study, we determined whether PD patients exhibited abnormalities in the pupillary autonomic nervous system (ANS).


METHODS
Before and after audiovisual stimulation (AS), which induced mental stress through exposure to video images of high stress experiences, such as driving motor vehicles, the pupillary light reflex (PLR) was measured by infrared pupillometer in 13 remitted PD patients and twenty age- and gender-matched normal controls (NC).


RESULTS
Before and after AS, there were no significant differences in initial pupillary diameters in dark conditions (D1), pupillary diameters at maximum constriction (D2) or constriction ratios (CR: (D1-D2)/D1) between PD and NC subjects. However, the CR ratio (CR before/CR after) was significantly higher in the PD group than in the NC.


CONCLUSIONS
These findings suggest that even remitted PD patients may have a dysfunctional PLR regulation with experimental stressors such as AS.
Department of Psychiatry, Niigata University Graduate School of Medical and Dental Sciences, 1-757 Asahimachi, Niigata 951-8510, Japan.
Maki
M
Kojima
Toshiki
T
Shioiri
Toshihiro
T
Hosoki
Hideaki
H
Kitamura
Takehiko
T
Bando
Toshiyuki
T
Someya
D000328:Adult; D006801:Humans; D008027:Light; D008297:Male; D016584:Panic Disorder / Q000503:physiopathology*; D010812:Physical Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D012025:Reflex, Pupillary / Q000502:physiology*