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Related Experiment Videos

Autonomic response in depersonalization disorder.

Mauricio Sierra1, Carl Senior, Jeffrey Dalton

  • 1Institute of Psychiatry, 103 Denmark Hill, London SE5 8AZ, England. M.Sierra-Siegert@iop.kcl.ac.uk

Archives of General Psychiatry
|September 7, 2002
PubMed
Summary

Patients with depersonalization disorder exhibit reduced autonomic responses to unpleasant emotional stimuli. This suggests a selective emotional processing inhibition, despite heightened alertness to startling noises.

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Area of Science:

  • Psychiatry
  • Neuroscience
  • Psychophysiology

Background:

  • Emotional processing inhibition is a proposed mechanism for depersonalization-derealization disorder symptoms.
  • This study investigates autonomic responses to emotional stimuli in depersonalization disorder.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To test if autonomic responses to emotional stimuli are reduced in patients with depersonalization disorder.

Main Methods:

  • Compared skin conductance responses in 15 depersonalization disorder patients, 15 controls, and 11 anxiety disorder patients.
  • Stimuli included nonspecific sounds (clap, sigh) and 15 emotional pictures (pleasant, unpleasant, neutral).

Main Results:

  • Depersonalization disorder patients showed significantly reduced skin conductance response to unpleasant pictures.

Related Experiment Videos

  • Response latency to unpleasant pictures was prolonged in depersonalization disorder patients.
  • Depersonalization and anxiety groups had shorter latency to nonspecific startling stimuli compared to controls.

    • Conclusions:

    • Autonomic response to unpleasant stimuli is diminished in depersonalization disorder.
    • Heightened alertness to startling stimuli, coupled with reduced response to unpleasant stimuli, suggests selective emotional processing inhibition.