title: Physiologic responses to loud tones in individuals with obsessive-compulsive disorder.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To determine if individuals with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) are characterized by larger eyeblink and/or autonomic responses to sudden, loud (startling) tones.
  
  
  METHODS
  Twenty participants with OCD and 21 mentally healthy control participants were presented with 15 consecutive 95-db, 500-msec, 1000-Hz tones with 0-msec rise and fall times at the same time orbicularis oculi electromyogram (EMG), heart rate (HR), and skin conductance (SC) responses were measured.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Participants with OCD produced larger average HR responses and a slower decline in SC responses across the 15-tone presentations. A trend for larger than average eyeblink EMG responses in participants with OCD was also observed.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These results provide laboratory support for enhanced HR reactivity and a slower decline in SC responses to startling stimuli in individuals with OCD.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, USA. buhlmann@psych.mgh.harvard.edu
authors.forename: Ulrike
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Buhlmann
authors.forename: Sabine
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Wilhelm
authors.forename: Thilo
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Deckersbach
authors.forename: Scott L
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Rauch
authors.forename: Roger K
authors.initials: RK
authors.lastname: Pitman
authors.forename: Scott P
authors.initials: SP
authors.lastname: Orr
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001767:Blinking; D004576:Electromyography; D005260:Female; D005712:Galvanic Skin Response; D006339:Heart Rate; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D016555:Matched-Pair Analysis; D009622:Noise; D009771:Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder / Q000503:physiopathology*; D013216:Reflex, Startle