Exposure to internal and external stimuli: Reactions in children of patients with panic disorder or animal phobia

Abstract

One aim of this study was to investigate whether children of parents with panic disorder (CPAN) ( n = 27) respond with higher levels of anxiety to internal stimuli (caused by voluntary hyperventilation) than children of parents with animal phobia (CPHOB) ( n = 21) or children of healthy control parents (CCON) ( n = 29). To test the specificity of the hypothesis, the second aim was to assess whether CPHOB respond with higher increases in fear to an external (i.e., phobic) stimulus (spider) than both CPAN and CCON. Subjective anxiety and heart rate were assessed throughout the experiment. Contrary to expectation, all three groups of children reacted to hyperventilation with significant increases in subjective anxiety and heart rate. CPAN did not respond with stronger anxiety reactions than other children to hyperventilation, nor did they show higher increases in heart rate. However, more of the CPAN prematurely terminated the hyperventilation task. When children were not divided according to parental diagnoses, but rather with respect to their own initial level of reported fear of physical symptoms (anxiety sensitivity), those with higher levels of fear showed higher increases in subjective anxiety to the hyperventilation task. As for the spider confrontation, CPHOB reacted with significantly higher increases in subjective fear than both CPAN and CCON.