Citation

Oh DJ, Lee DH, Kim EY, Kim WJ, Baik MJ. Psychiatry Res. 2018; 261: 428-435.

Affiliation

Department of Psychiatry, Armed Forces Capital Hospital, Seongnam, Republic of Korea. Electronic address: kinotopia100@hanmail.net.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2018, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.psychres.2017.12.065

PMID

29353770

Abstract

Only few studies addressing the biological background of adjustment disorder (AD) exist. We examined the psychophysiological correlates indicative of autonomic regulation in AD. Heart rate variability (HRV), skin conductance, skin temperature, electromyography, and respiration were measured during serial stress tasks in 33 soldiers with AD and 60 healthy controls (HC). Patients with AD displayed lower relative power of high frequency (rHF) HRV and higher relative power of very low frequency (rVLF) HRV compared with HC at baseline. Inversely, the rHF of patients with AD remained higher and their rVLF remained lower compared with HC parameters after the single stress task, which suggests a reversed sympathovagal balance in AD. Mean heart rate and skin conductance increased during stress tasks in patients, although to a lesser extent than in HC. Skin temperature remained unchanged in all tasks in patients with AD. The tension of the frontalis muscle was higher in patients compared with HC from the second stress task onward. Thoracic breathing was more prevalent in patients with AD. Our study suggests altered autonomic reactivity in AD, which leads to a lack of sympathetic response to stress. We conclude that the distinctive biological mechanisms underlying AD are different from normal stress reactions.

Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Language: en

Keywords

Adjustment disorder; Autonomic nervous system; Military psychiatry; Psychophysiology; Stress response