title: Threat-induced autonomic dysregulation in panic disorder evidenced by heart rate variability measures.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The objective was to compare autonomic response to threatening stimuli between patients with panic disorder (PD) and healthy volunteers by using 5-min recordings of heart rate variability (HRV).
  
  
  METHODS
  Twenty-seven patients with PD and 20 healthy controls were recruited. The first 5-min measurement of HRV was conducted at resting state. HRV measurement during threatening stimuli was conducted while participants were viewing 15 threatening pictures. Spectral analyses measures included high-frequency (HF; 0.15-0.4 HZ) component, low-frequency (LF; 0.04-0.15 Hz) component and LF/HF ratio.
  
  
  RESULTS
  There was no significant HRV difference between the two groups at the resting state. During threatening stimuli, the PD group had significantly higher LF power and LF/HF ratio and significantly lower HF power than the healthy controls (for all, P<.01). A two-way analysis of variance was employed to determine the effect of group (patient and control) and condition (threatening and resting) on all three HRV measures. The analysis showed a significant main effect of group (F=12.21; P<.01), condition (F=14.21; P<.001) and interaction effect between group and condition (F=4.83; P<.05) on LF/HF ratio.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The findings from the present study suggest that patients with PD exhibit a sympathetic predominance when faced with threatening stimuli compared with normal control subjects.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Uijeongbu St. Mary's Hospital, The Catholic University of Korea College of Medicine, Uijeongbu 480-130, South Korea.
authors.forename: Sheng-Min
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Bora
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Yeon
authors.forename: Sunyoung
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hwang
authors.forename: Hae-Kook
authors.initials: HK
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Yong-Sil
authors.initials: YS
authors.lastname: Kweon
authors.forename: Chung Tai
authors.initials: CT
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Jeong-Ho
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Chae
authors.forename: Kyoung-Uk
authors.initials: KU
authors.lastname: Lee
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001341:Autonomic Nervous System / Q000503:physiopathology; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D004562:Electrocardiography; D005239:Fear / Q000502:physiology / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006339:Heart Rate / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D016584:Panic Disorder / Q000209:etiology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D010775:Photic Stimulation
keywords: Autonomic nervous system; Heart rate variability; Panic disorder; Spectral Analyses; Threatening stimuli