title: Interoceptive threat leads to defensive mobilization in highly anxiety sensitive persons.
abstract: To study defensive mobilization elicited by the exposure to interoceptive arousal sensations, we exposed highly anxiety sensitive students to a symptom provocation task. Symptom reports, autonomic arousal, and the startle eyeblink response were monitored during guided hyperventilation and a recovery period in 26 highly anxiety sensitive persons and 22 controls. Normoventilation was used as a non-provocative comparison condition. Hyperventilation led to autonomic arousal and a marked increase in somatic symptoms. While high and low anxiety sensitive persons did not differ in their defensive activation during hyperventilation, group differences were detected during early recovery. Highly anxiety sensitive students exhibited a potentiation of startle response magnitudes and increased autonomic arousal after hyper- as compared to after normoventilation, indicating defensive mobilization evoked by the prolonged presence of feared somatic sensations.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological and Clinical Psychology, University of Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany. melzig@uni-greifswald.de
authors.forename: Christiane A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Melzig
authors.forename: Katharina
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Holtz
authors.forename: Jaroslaw M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Michalowski
authors.forename: Alfons O
authors.initials: AO
authors.lastname: Hamm
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D001007:Anxiety / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology*; D001143:Arousal; D001341:Autonomic Nervous System / Q000503:physiopathology; D002245:Carbon Dioxide / Q000097:blood; D003463:Cues; D003627:Data Interpretation, Statistical; D004562:Electrocardiography; D004576:Electromyography; D005260:Female; D005712:Galvanic Skin Response / Q000502:physiology; D006339:Heart Rate / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D006985:Hyperventilation / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology; D008297:Male; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D013216:Reflex, Startle / Q000502:physiology; D015656:Respiratory Mechanics / Q000502:physiology; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D002245:Carbon Dioxide