title: Depressive symptoms and attenuated physiological reactivity to laboratory stressors.
abstract: There is evidence that depressive symptoms are associated with attenuated physiological reactivity to active stressors. However, it is not known whether blunted reactivity in depressed individuals is stressor-specific. We examined cardiovascular and electrodermal reactivity in non-clinical participants with varying levels of depressive symptoms to different active and passive stressors. Depressive symptoms were inversely related to both blood pressure and skin conductance reactivity during a public speaking task and the viewing of the speech video. However, no effects were found during a cold pressor task. Together these findings suggest that depressive symptoms are related to attenuated sympathetic nervous system reactivity in response to self-relevant stressors.
authors.affiliation: Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz, Germany. aschwerd@uni-mainz.de
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Schwerdtfeger
authors.forename: Ann-Kathrin
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Rosenkaimer
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001794:Blood Pressure / Q000502:physiology*; D003080:Cold Temperature; D003863:Depression / Q000503:physiopathology*; D005260:Female; D005712:Galvanic Skin Response / Q000502:physiology*; D006339:Heart Rate / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D013060:Speech; D013312:Stress, Physiological / Q000502:physiology*; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000503:physiopathology*