title: Autonomic Arousal and Emotion in Victims of Interpersonal Violence: Shame Proneness But Not Anxiety Predicts Vagal Tone.
abstract: The redefinition of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition, has highlighted a range of posttraumatic affects beyond fear and anxiety. For survivors of interpersonal violence, shame has been shown to be an important contributor of self-reported symptomatology. Although biological models of PTSD emphasize physiological arousal secondary to fear and anxiety, evidence suggests that shame might be related to increased arousal as well. This study tested the contributions of anxiety, fear, and shame to autonomic arousal in a sample of female victims (N = 27) of interpersonal violence with PTSD. Shame proneness was the only significant correlate of autonomic arousal during a trauma reminder paradigm. These findings indicate that shame corresponds to important indicators of changes to the autonomic nervous system that have previously been assumed to be fear related.
authors.affiliation: a The New School for Social Research , New York , New York , USA.
authors.forename: Steven
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Freed
authors.forename: Wendy
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: D'Andrea
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000342:Affective Symptoms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology; D001008:Anxiety Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology*; D001143:Arousal / Q000502:physiology*; D001341:Autonomic Nervous System / Q000503:physiopathology*; D019548:Crime Victims / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D005712:Galvanic Skin Response / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D000066511:Intimate Partner Violence / Q000523:psychology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D065809:Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia / Q000502:physiology; D012752:Shame; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014630:Vagus Nerve / Q000503:physiopathology*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: complex trauma; heart rate variability; interpersonal violence; posttraumatic stress disorder; shame