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Cardiac and respiratory activity in panic disorder: effects of sleep and sleep lactate infusions
H W Koenigsberg1, C P Pollak, J Fine
1Department of Psychiatry, Cornell University Medical College, White Plains, NY.
Objective:
This study examined cardiac and respiratory activity in panic disorder patients and healthy comparison subjects during sleep, when the effects of anxious cognition and expectancy set are minimized.
Method:
Heart rate, respiratory rate, end-tidal PCO2, and oxygen saturation were recorded for 11 panic disorder patients and 12 comparison subjects before and during sleep and before and after infusions of sodium lactate and a saline control.
Results:
Panic disorder patients had higher oxygen saturations than comparison subjects before sleep onset and during sleep stages 0 and 2 before any infusions. The two groups did not differ on other respiratory variables and heart rate. Panic disorder patients responded to lactate infusions during stage 3-4 sleep with greater increases in heart rate and oxygen saturation, and possibly in respiratory rate and end-tidal PCO2, than comparison subjects. The saline control infusion had little effect.
Conclusions:
These findings suggest that panic disorder patients have greater cardiac and respiratory reactivity than healthy comparison subjects during sleep, when the influence of cognitive factors is minimal or absent.