TY  - JOUR
PY  - 2014//
TI  - Aversive startle potentiation and fear pathology: mediating role of threat sensitivity and moderating impact of depression
JO  - International journal of psychophysiology
A1  - Yancey, James R.
A1  - Vaidyanathan, Uma
A1  - Patrick, Christopher J.
SP  - 262
EP  - 269
VL  - 98
IS  - 2P2
N2  - Enhanced startle during exposure to unpleasant cues (aversive startle potentiation; ASP) appears in the RDoC matrix as a physiological index of acute threat response. Increased ASP has been linked to focal fear disorders and to scale measures of dispositional fearfulness (i.e., threat sensitivity; THT+). However, some studies have reported reduced ASP for fear pathology accompanied by major depressive disorder (MDD) or pervasive distress. The current study evaluated whether (a) THT+as indexed by reported dispositional fearfulness mediates the relationship between fear disorders (when unaccompanied by depression) and ASP, and (b) depression moderates relations of THT+and fear disorders with ASP. Fear disorder participants without MDD showed enhanced ASP whereas those with MDD (or other distress conditions) showed evidence of reduced ASP. Continuous THT+scores also predicted ASP, and this association: (a) was likewise moderated by depression/distress, and (b) accounted for the relationship between ASP and fear pathology without MDD. These findings point to a role for the RDoC construct of acute threat, operationalized dispositionally, in enhanced ASP shown by individuals with fear pathology unaccompanied by distress pathology.<p />  <p>Language: en</p>
LA  - en
SN  - 0167-8760
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2014.10.014
ID  - ref1
ER  -