Psychophysiological Assessment During Exposure in Driving Phobic Patients.

Abstract

A comprehensive assessment of fear or anxiety requires measurement of both self-report and physiological responses. Respiratory abnormalities have been rarely examined during real-life exposure, although they are an integral part of fear. Twenty-one women with a specific driving phobia and 17 nonphobic women were psychophysiologically monitored during 2 highway-driving sessions; phobic women completed an additional session. Respiratory movements, end-tidal partial pressure of carbon dioxide, an electrocardiogram, skin conductance, and skin temperature were recorded. Phobic patients differed from control participants both physiologically and experientially before, during, and after exposure. Effect size during exposure was large for the authors' measure of hyperventilation. Discriminant analysis indicated that multiple physiological measures contributed nonredundant information and correctly classified 95% of phobic and control participants. Thus, selected respiratory and autonomic measures are valid diagnostic and therapeutic outcome criteria for this situational phobia.

Hyperventilation in Anticipatory Music Performance Anxiety

“…This is in accordance with previous studies showing significant session effects but no significant group effects between high-and low performance-anxious musicians with respect to HR and neuroendocrine measures (20)(21). Studies on other forms of anxiety (social phobia, driving phobia, and flying phobia) also failed to yield group differences with respect to various physiological variables (15,22,33,35). These results suggest that the activation of many physiological parameters before a stressful situation is associated with arousal in general rather than with anxiety per se.…”

“…Firstly, it did not show the expected overall decrease from the private to the public session. The absence of an overall session effect contrasts with reports showing a moderate (i.e., 1.4-3 mmHg) but significant decrease of P et CO 2 between a relaxed and a stressful (emotional or cognitive) situation in clinical and non-clinical samples (15,(17)(18)(19). Secondly, it was the only physiological variable with a significant MPA x session interaction effect.…”

“…Empirical evidence for response coherence in emotion, specifically in anxiety, is mixed (22). The few studies that investigated the response coherence between P et CO 2 and the self-reported affective experience, and between P et CO 2 and the self-reported physiological symptoms, also reported mixed results (13,15,(23)(24). There is only little knowledge on response coherence in MPA (20)(21).…”

“…Furthermore, tidal volume variability (TVV) was shown to be higher in patients with panic disorder, a condition often associated with hyperventilation (13)(14), and in driving phobics compared to healthy persons (15).…”

Ambulantes Assessment in der Klinischen Psychologie und Psychiatrie

“…Eine umfassende multimodale psychophysiologische Diagnostik des Therapieprozesses wurde bei Patientinnen mit Autofahrphobie (Alpers et al, 2005) und Flugphobie (Wilhelm & Roth, 1998) realisiert. Während der in-vivoExposition (Fahrt auf der Autobahn bzw.…”