Blunted cardiac reactivity to psychological stress associated with higher trait anxiety: a study in peacekeepers

Abstract

BackgroundBoth exaggerated and diminished reactivity to stress can be maladaptive. Previous studies have shown that performing increasingly difficult tasks leads first to increased reactivity and then to a blunted response when success is impossible. Our aim was to investigate the influence of trait anxiety on cardiac and cortisol response to and recovery from a standardized psychosocial stress task (Trier Social Stress Task) in a homogeneous sample of healthy peacekeepers. We hypothesized that participants with higher trait anxiety would show blunted reactivity during the performance of an overwhelmingly difficult and stressful task. Participants (N = 50) delivered a speech and performed an arithmetic task in the presence of critical evaluators. Cortisol samples and electrocardiogram data were collected. Participants completed the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory—Trait version, the Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Checklist—Civilian Version (PCL-C) and the Military Peace Force Stressor Inventory.ResultsFor heart rate, the findings showed that peacekeepers with higher trait anxiety reacted less to the speech task (p = 0.03) and to the arithmetic task (p = 0.008) than those with lower trait anxiety. Trait anxiety did not modulate cortisol responses to the task. Despite the high trait anxiety group having higher PCL-C scores than the low trait anxiety group (p < 0.0001), this did not influence the cardiac results.ConclusionsWe concluded that individuals with higher trait anxiety had less tachycardia in response to acute psychological stress than those with lower trait anxiety. The present results point to a higher risk for more anxious individuals of a maladaptive reaction to stressful events.

The behavioural, cognitive, and neural corollaries of blunted cardiovascular and cortisol reactions to acute psychological stress

“…Contemporary with and subsequent to these analyses, a number of other studies have now reported negative associations between symptoms of depression and stress reactivity in a range of samples (Brindle et al, 2013; Franzen and Brinkmann, 2015; Schwerdtfeger and Rosenkaimer, 2011; York et al, 2007), as well as between major depressive disorder and reactivity (Rottenberg et al, 2007; Salomon et al, 2009, 2013). Cross sectional associations between blunted stress reactivity and symptoms of anxiety have also been reported by others (Souza et al, 2015). Finally, in a prospective analysis of data from the West of Scotland Study, blunted heart rate reactions were associated with more symptoms of depression five years later, even when controlling for symptoms at the earlier time point, i.e., blunted heart rate reactivity was associated with any subsequent deterioration in symptoms of depression (Phillips et al, 2011b).…”

A machine learning approach to identifying objective biomarkers of anxiety and stress

“…They exhibit low baseline HPA axis response but display a high sympathetic and adrenomedullary responses to acute threats (66)(67)(68). In our study, a blunted response to acute stressors in high trait anxiety participants is consistent with a "dove-like" phenotype (68,69).…”

The developmental precursors of blunted cardiovascular responses to stress

“…Recent evidence has shown that a blunted heart rate response to stress is linked to poorer psychosocial factors, such as trait anxiety, neuroticism, depression, bulimia, alcohol dependence, obesity, and greater life stress (Bibbey, Carroll, Roseboom, Phillips, & de Rooij, 2013; Koo‐Loeb, Pedersen, & Girdler, 1998; Lovallo, 2013; Lovallo, Dickensheets, Myers, Thomas, & Nixon, 2000; Singh & Shen, 2013; Souza et al., 2015). Blunted heart rate reactivity has also been linked prospectively to poorer health outcomes, such as a risk of obesity, depression and anxiety, poor lung function, poor cognitive function, poorer self‐reported health, and death from cardiac events (Carroll, Phillips, & Lovallo, 2012; de Rooij, 2013; Phillips, 2011; Phillips, Ginty, & Hughes, 2013).…”