ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: Socioenvironmental stressors have been linked with increased symptom severity and relapse in those with schizophrenia. However, little is known about how individual differences in stress reactivity may contribute to these outcomes. METHOD: This study examined the association between the temperament characteristic of arousability and changes in negative affect and cardiovascular activity during a challenge task in 58 in-patients with diagnosis of schizophrenia and 21 controls. RESULTS: In the patient group, levels of arousability were significantly associated with increases in negative affect in response to the task and greater severity of affective symptoms. Levels of arousability were associated with decreased heart rate during the challenge task in our patient group. CONCLUSION: These findings suggest that greater attention be given to individual differences, such as temperament and personality characteristics, and their role in the experience of stressors, including emotional and physiological response, as well as symptom development.
Subject(s)
Arousal/physiology , Emotions/physiology , Psychotic Disorders/physiopathology , Schizophrenia/physiopathology , Schizophrenic Psychology , Adult , Attention/physiology , Autonomic Nervous System/physiopathology , Blood Pressure/physiology , Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale , Depression/diagnosis , Depression/physiopathology , Depression/psychology , Female , Heart Rate/physiology , Humans , Individuality , Male , Middle Aged , Problem Solving/physiology , Psychotic Disorders/diagnosis , Psychotic Disorders/psychology , Schizophrenia/diagnosis , Stress, Psychological/complications , TemperamentABSTRACT
The speech of some schizophrenia patients becomes markedly more disordered when negative affect is aroused. The authors tested associations between affective reactivity of speech and responsiveness and inhibition on an acoustic startle task in a sample of 27 outpatients. Patients whose language was reactive to negative affect showed significantly higher initial startle amplitudes than those whose language was not reactive. However, they also showed greater habituation to repeated startle stimuli over trials, even after differences in initial amplitudes were controlled statistically. These findings suggest that affective reactivity of speech is associated with higher initial startle responsiveness but also with greater habituation and, conversely, that patients who are relatively nonreactive to excitatory affective and sensory stimuli are also less reactive to inhibitory input.
