title: Autonomic arousal in childhood anxiety disorders: associations with state anxiety and social anxiety disorder.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Psychophysiological theories suggest that individuals with anxiety disorders may evidence inflexibility in their autonomic activity at rest and when responding to stressors. In addition, theories of social anxiety disorder, in particular, highlight the importance of physical symptoms. Research on autonomic activity in childhood (social) anxiety disorders, however, is scarce and has produced inconsistent findings, possibly because of methodological limitations.
  
  
  METHODS
  The present study aimed to account for limitations of previous studies and measured respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) and heart rate (HR) using Actiheart heart rate monitors and software (Version 4) during rest and in response to a social and a non-social stressor in 60 anxious (30 socially anxious and 30 'other' anxious), and 30 nonanxious sex-and age-matched 7-12 year olds. In addition, the effect of state anxiety during the tasks was explored.
  
  
  RESULTS
  No group differences at rest or in response to stress were found. Importantly, however, with increases in state anxiety, all children, regardless of their anxiety diagnoses showed less autonomic responding (i.e., less change in HR and RSA from baseline in response to task) and took longer to recover once the stressor had passed.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study focused primarily on parasympathetic arousal and lacked measures of sympathetic arousal.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The findings suggest that childhood anxiety disorders may not be characterized by inflexible autonomic responding, and that previous findings to the contrary may have been the result of differences in subjective anxiety between anxious and nonanxious groups during the tasks, rather than a function of chronic autonomic dysregulation.
authors.affiliation: University of Reading, United Kingdom; University of Arizona, United States.
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Alkozei
authors.affiliation: University of Reading, United Kingdom. Electronic address: c.creswell@reading.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Cathy
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Creswell
authors.affiliation: University of Reading, United Kingdom; Stellenbosch University, South Africa.
authors.forename: Peter J
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Cooper
authors.affiliation: University of Arizona, United States.
authors.forename: John J B
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Allen
mesh_terms: D001008:Anxiety Disorders / Q000503:physiopathology*; D001143:Arousal / Q000502:physiology; D001341:Autonomic Nervous System / Q000503:physiopathology*; D018660:Blood Pressure Monitoring, Ambulatory; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006339:Heart Rate / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology; D065809:Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia / Q000502:physiology*
keywords: Autonomic flexibility; Childhood anxiety disorders; Heart rate; Respiratory sinus arrhythmia; Social anxiety disorder