Title Recovery After Stress-Autonomic and Subjective Arousal in Individuals With Psychosis Compared to Healthy Controls.
Author Bahlinger, Katrin; Lincoln, Tania M; Clamor, Annika
Journal Schizophr Bull Publication Year/Month 2022-Nov
PMID 35998116 PMCID PMC9673261
Affiliation 1.Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, Institute of Psychology, Faculty of Psychology and Human Movement Sciences, Universitat Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany.

BACKGROUND AND HYPOTHESIS: Heightened stress levels in individuals with psychosis (PSY) are associated with psychotic symptom occurrence and may be partially attributed to well-established deficits in resting-state heart rate variability (HRV) and emotion regulation. In healthy participants, resting-state HRV and self-reported emotion regulation skills have been linked to recovery after a stressor; however, it is unclear whether stress recovery is altered in PSY. Thus, we compared the autonomic and subjective recovery of PSY to healthy controls (HC) and investigated the predictive value of resting-state HRV and emotion regulation skills. STUDY DESIGN: We assessed resting-state HRV and self-reported emotion regulation one week prior to a combined physical and cognitive stress induction. After the stress exposure, we assessed the autonomic (decrease in heart rate [HR], increase in HRV) and subjective (decrease in subjective stress and negative affect) recovery in PSY (n = 50) and HC (n = 50) over 60 min. STUDY RESULTS: Repeated-measures ANOVA revealed the expected interaction of time x group for subjective stress but not negative affect or autonomic stress. Resting-state HRV predicted recovery of HR, and emotion regulation skills predicted recovery of HRV but not of the other parameters. CONCLUSIONS: Although subjective stress recovery was delayed in PSY, the absence of autonomic recovery deficits suggests that a prolonged stress response may not contribute to heightened stress levels to the expected extent. Improving resting-state HRV and emotion regulation may support autonomic recovery, but further investigation is required to test the impact of such improvements on psychotic symptoms.

  • Copyright © 2023
    National Institute of Pathogen Biology, CAMS & PUMC, Bejing, China
    All rights reserved.