A Comparison of Physiological and Psychological Measurements on Anxious Patients and Normal Controls

Abstract

Clinical, psychophysiological, and psychometric measurements were made on 20 normal controls and 30 anxious patients during rest and experimental stress. Resting forearm blood flow, a relatively new physiological index of anxiety, was found to correlate significantly with clinical and subjective ratings of anxiety, and with heart rate, number of spontaneous fluctuations of skin resistance, and amplitude of forearm EMG. It did not correlate significantly with any of the measures of depression. Resting forearm blood flow and heart rate were found to be better measures of arousal in this study than skin resistance, EMG, or cutaneous vasomotor status, since the latter did not show significant differences between anxious patients and normal controls. The psychological traits of the two groups were also assessed by the Maudsley Personality Inventory, Taylor Manifest Anxiety Scale, and Zung Depression Scale; and their emotional state evaluated by the Clyde Mood Scale and Semantic Differential Scale. Twenty‐one variables showed significant differences between the two groups. Some of these measures have subsequently been used, with advantage, to monitor emotional changes brought about by psychiatric treatment.

The induction and attenuation of state anxiety in helping profession trainees during the initial counseling interview

“…Because these results correspond with those from previous studies, the use of biofeedback training techniques as a mediator to the experience of state anxiety in helping profession trainees was not established. However, this study and those by Fontaine (197 5), Gibson (1977), and Meyer (Diblin, 1970;Kelly, Brown, and Shaffer, 1970;Thompson, 1976), the results of this research corresponds to the growing body of literature which indicates that correla tions between anxiety assessment measures are generally small and nonsignificant at worst, and unclear and confusing at best (Bowman, Roberts, and Giesen, 1978;Johnson and Spielberger, 1968). It is difficult to speculate on the reasons for such findings, however, this conclusion appears to be consistent with the operational definition of anxiety previously presented.…”

“…However, with both finger temperature and self-report measures there was a significant increase in state anxiety levels in helping profession trainees. (Fry, 1973 ;Pennscott and Brown, 1972;Rihani, 1973) person's reactions to it (Bowman, Roberts, and Giesen, 1978;Spielberger, 1972 (Kelly, Brown, and Shaffer, 1970;Leboeuf, 1974 This is in apparent conflict with other reported research findings Bowman, Roberts, and Giesen, 1978) in which both physiological and self-report measures detected significant increases in state anxiety during an inter view. The limitation of the research cited above is apparent when one realizes that the self-report measures were question naires developed by the investigators for use in their research.…”

“…Although this significance was found only in the first of four temperature training sessions, it does provide sub stantive data. Finally, in an exhaustive study completed by Kelly, Brown, and Shaffer (1970), a significant positive rela tionship was found between self-ratings of anxiety at rest and forearm blood flow at rest, and self-ratings of anxiety during stress and heart rate during stress. However, there were many additional opportunities for these data to demonstrate corre lations between these dimensions, yet no conclusion beyond those indicated should be considered.…”

“…Kelly, Brown, and Shaffer (1970) set about to establish differences among the 20 paid volunteer subjects and the 30 emergency clinic patients who had major symptoms of anxiety. Surface electrodes were 58 located on the right forearm extensor muscle and measurements were recorded during rest and experimental stress.…”

Cardiovascular Correlates of the Psychotherapeutic Process

“…Kelly and co-workers [Kelly, 1967;Kelly and Walter, 1968;Kelly et al, 1970] found increased forearm blood flow (FBF) levels among anxious patients. This led Williams et al [1973] to examine FBF under interview conditions.…”