Psychophysiological discriminants of depression at rest and in response to stress

Examined heart rate, skin conductance, and finger pulse amplitude at rest and in response to stress in a group of 10 chronically depressed Ss and a closely matched set of controls. While all physiological channels revealed a significant main effect attributable to the conditions of rest, anticipation of stress, and stress, only the skin conductance channel revealed a significant group effect. No significant interaction effect was revealed for any of the channels. The results indicate that skin conductance level may have some potential in assessing the level of depression in clients and that attempts to control directly skin conductance level, as in biofeedback, may prove to be a useful adjunct in the treatment of depression with the characteristics employed in this study.