Heart Rate Reactivity to Acute Psychological Stress Predicts Higher Levels of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Symptoms During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Objective: Increased autonomic arousal is a proposed risk factor for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Few studies have prospectively examined the association between physiological responses to acute psychological stress before a traumatic event and later PTSD symptoms. The present prospective study examined whether cardiovascular responses to an acute psychological stress task before the COVID-19 global pandemic predicted PTSD symptoms related to the ongoing pandemic. Methods: Participants (n = 120) were a subsample of an ongoing research study. Phase 1 consisted of a 10-minute baseline and 4-minute acute psychological stress task with blood pressure and heart rate recorded throughout. Phase 2 was initiated 2 weeks after the COVID-19 pandemic declaration. Participants completed the Impact of Event Scale-Revised (IES-R) with respect to the ongoing pandemic. Hierarchical linear regression analyses were used to examine whether cardiovascular stress reactivity predicted COVID-19 PTSD symptoms. Results: Heart rate reactivity significantly predicted IES intrusion (β = −0.208, t = −2.28, p = .025, ΔR 2 = 0.041, confidence interval = −0.021 to −0.001) and IES hyperarousal (β = −0.224, t = −2.54, p = .012, ΔR 2 = 0.047, confidence interval = −0.22 to − 0.003), but not IES avoidance (p = .077). These results remained statistically significant after adjustment for sex, socioeconomic status, baseline cardiovascular activity, neuroticism, race, ethnicity, body mass index, and adverse childhood experiences. There were no statistically significant associations between blood pressure and any of the Impact of Event Scale-Revised subscales (p values > .12). Conclusions: Diminished heart rate responses (i.e., lower physiological arousal) to acute psychological stress before the COVID-19 pandemic significantly predicted reported PTSD symptoms during the crisis.

Work–family conflict and posttraumatic stress symptoms among college teachers during the COVID‐19 pandemic

“…Such stress leads to a negative worldview and negative emotions, which in turn worsen PTSS (Pollice et al, 2012). This is supported by evidence that perceived stress can predict PTSS (Ginty et al, 2021;Keane, 1996). In this study, we hypothesized that work-family conflict would predict PTSS because it increases perceived stress following trauma.…”

Autonomic Dysfunction during Acute SARS-CoV-2 Infection: A Systematic Review

“…[66][67][68][69][70][71][72][73][74][75][76][77]; not acute COVID-19 population-Refs. [78][79][80][81][82][83][84][85][86][87][88][89][90]; not in English or Italian-Refs. [49,50]; study design-Refs.…”

“…Reports excluded: Not formal assessment of dysautonomia-Refs [66][67][68][69][70][71][72][73][74][75][76][77][78][79][80][81][82][83][84][85][86][87][88][89][90][49,50]…”

Acute stress disorder in patients with accidental traumatic fractures: What can we do

“…Women are more prone to psychological problems and even mental disorders after being stimulated by stress events (Parker et al, 2021 ). The current explanations for the differences in psychological problems between men and women after traumatic events may be related to the differences in the memory coding of disasters and the cognition of pictograms between the different genders (Ginty et al, 2021 ; Nelson et al, 2021 ). In trauma injuries, women show stronger memory coding and more obvious negative cognition than men (Hayashi et al, 2021 ; Rosenfeld & Ford, 2010 ).…”