Blunted cardiac reactivity to psychological stress associated with higher trait anxiety: a study in peacekeepers

Both exaggerated and diminished reactivity to stress can be maladaptive. Previous studies have shown that performing increasingly difficult tasks leads first to increased reactivity and then to a blunted response when success is impossible. Our aim was to investigate the influence of trait anxiety on cardiac and cortisol response to and recovery from a standardized psychosocial stress task (Trier Social Stress Task) in a homogeneous sample of healthy peacekeepers. We hypothesized that participants with higher trait anxiety would show blunted reactivity during the performance of an overwhelmingly difficult and stressful task. Participants (N = 50) delivered a speech and performed an arithmetic task in the presence of critical evaluators. Cortisol samples and electrocardiogram data were collected. Participants completed the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory-Trait version, the Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Checklist-Civilian Version (PCL-C) and the Military Peace Force Stressor Inventory.

For heart rate, the findings showed that peacekeepers with higher trait anxiety reacted less to the speech task (p = 0.03) and to the arithmetic task (p = 0.008) than those with lower trait anxiety. Trait anxiety did not modulate cortisol responses to the task. Despite the high trait anxiety group having higher PCL-C scores than the low trait anxiety group (p < 0.0001), this did not influence the cardiac results.

We concluded that individuals with higher trait anxiety had less tachycardia in response to acute psychological stress than those with lower trait anxiety. The present results point to a higher risk for more anxious individuals of a maladaptive reaction to stressful events.