Anxiety Sensitivity, State and Trait Anxiety, and Perception of Change in Sympathetic Nervous System Arousal

Abstract

—The psychological models of panic disorder predict that persons with this condition may demonstrate enhanced acuity for somatic stimuli, but research to date has produced conflicting results. Most studies have investigated acuity for cardiovascular responses such as heart rate, which may represent an inadequate test of this hypothesis because they would be unlikely to detect persons who respond maximally to panic through other physiological systems. The present study investigated the detection of changes in pulse transit time (PTT), as a reliable and omnibus measure of sympathetic nervous system activity, with 36 healthy volunteers. We found that accurate perception of changes in PTT was consistently related to higher levels of trait anxiety and anxiety sensitivity, both of which are risk factors for the development of anxiety disorders in general, and panic disorder in particular.