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Published on: October 24, 2018
Depressive symptoms and attenuated physiological reactivity to laboratory stressors
Andreas Schwerdtfeger1, Ann-Kathrin Rosenkaimer
1Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz, Germany. aschwerd@uni-mainz.de
Abstract:
There is evidence that depressive symptoms are associated with attenuated physiological reactivity to active stressors. However, it is not known whether blunted reactivity in depressed individuals is stressor-specific. We examined cardiovascular and electrodermal reactivity in non-clinical participants with varying levels of depressive symptoms to different active and passive stressors. Depressive symptoms were inversely related to both blood pressure and skin conductance reactivity during a public speaking task and the viewing of the speech video. However, no effects were found during a cold pressor task. Together these findings suggest that depressive symptoms are related to attenuated sympathetic nervous system reactivity in response to self-relevant stressors.
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