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Emotion-modulated startle in anxiety disorders is blunted by co-morbid depressive episodes

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 March 2010

A. Taylor-Clift ,
B. H. Morris ,
J. Rottenberg  and
M. Kovacs
A. Taylor-Clift
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL, USA
B. H. Morris
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL, USA
J. Rottenberg*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL, USA
M. Kovacs
Affiliation:
School of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA
*
*Address for correspondence: J. Rottenberg, PhD, University of South Florida, 4202 E. Fowler Ave., PCD 4118G, Tampa, FL 33624, USA. (Email: [email protected])
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Abstract

Background

While anxiety has been associated with exaggerated emotional reactivity, depression has been associated with blunted, or context insensitive, emotional responding. Although anxiety and depressive disorders are frequently co-morbid, surprisingly little is known about emotional reactivity when the two disorders co-occur.

Method

We utilized the emotion-modulated startle (EMS) paradigm to examine the effects of a concurrent depressive episode on emotional reactivity in young adults with anxiety disorders. Using an archival dataset from a multi-disciplinary project on risk factors in childhood-onset depression, we examined eye-blink startle reactions to late-onset auditory startle probes while participants viewed pictures with affectively pleasant, unpleasant and neutral content. EMS response patterns were analyzed in 33 individuals with a current anxiety (but no depressive) disorder, 24 individuals with a current anxiety disorder and co-morbid depressive episode and 96 healthy controls.

Results

Control participants and those with a current anxiety disorder (but no depression) displayed normative linearity in startle responses, including potentiation by unpleasant pictures. By contrast, individuals with concurrent anxiety and depression displayed blunted EMS.

Conclusions

An anxiety disorder concurrent with a depressive episode is associated with reactivity that more closely resembles the pattern of emotional responding that is typical of depression (i.e. context insensitive) rather than the pattern that is typical for anxiety (i.e. exaggerated).

Keywords

Anxietyco-morbiditydepressionemotionstartle
Type
Original Articles
Information
Psychological Medicine , Volume 41 , Issue 1 , January 2011 , pp. 129 - 139
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010

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