Psychophysiological reactivity in female sexual abuse survivors.

This study examined psychophysiological reactivity in 37 female childhood sexual abuse (CSA) survivors. After assessment of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), psychiatric comorbidity, and trauma history, we conducted a psychophysiological assessment of forehead muscle tension, electrodermal activity, and heart rate during a mental arithmetic task and4 script-driven imagery tasks (neutral, consensual sex, pleasant, and trauma). PTSD symptom severity correlated positively with psychophysiologic changes and negative emotions during the trauma imagery task. During mental arithmetic, PTSD symptom severity correlated negatively with autonomic changes and positively with negative emotions. These results extend earlier PTSD research showing trauma-specific increased psychophysiological reactivity related to CSA in women with PTSD. They further suggest a negative association between PTSD severity and autonomic reactions to mental arithmetic.

What is binge eating? A comparison of binge eater, peer, and professional judgments of eating episodes.

Binge eating is a central diagnostic feature of bulimia nervosa (BN) and binge-eating disorder (BED), yet the phenomenon of bingeing has not been adequately defined, and there is considerable variability in how individuals label eating episodes as binges. We examined the agreement among binge-eating individuals, non-eating-disordered peers, and professional dietitians over whether particular eating episodes were binges. Twenty-nine females with BED, fifteen nonclinical binge eaters (NCB), three peer judges, and three dietitians rated a sample of eating episodes of the binge-eating individuals as either binges or nonbinges based on the types and amounts of food eaten as well as the duration of each eating episode. BED participants labeled a significantly higher proportion of their intakes as binges relative to NCB participants. Peer judges were more likely than were dietitians to label participants' eating episodes as binges. Agreement within dietitian and peer groups was poor to fair, whereas agreement between these groups was fair. Finally, agreement between participants and the external judges (i.e., peers, dietitians) was poor. Possible explanations for these findings as well as implications for the diagnosis of BN and BED are discussed.

Anger management training with mild essential hypertensive patients.

Casual blood pressures and measures of cardiovascular and behavioral reactions to neutral and confrontive interactions were obtained from 13 essential hypertensive patients who received training in anger management and 9 no-treatment control patients. At pre- and posttraining, heart rate (HR) and blood pressure (BP) were measured (a) at rest and (b) during role-play interactions consisting of neutral and confrontation scenes. Behavioral responses were also coded for each interaction. For treatment subjects, a 6-week program in anger management was conducted, which included relaxation training, self-statement modification, and role-play assertiveness training. Treatment subjects exhibited significantly lower casual DBPs at posttraining (M = 90.2 mm Hg) than control subjects (M = 95.7 mm Hg). Posttreatment casual SBPs for treatment and control subjects were not significantly different. Treatment subjects exhibited significantly more assertive skill and lesser DBP reactivity at posttreatment than their control counterparts during the confrontive interaction but not during the neutral role-play interaction.

Reducing heart rate reactivity to stress with feedback. Generalization across task and time.

Heart rate (HR) reactions to two behavioral stressors (videogame and mental arithmetic) were measured in 8 experimental subjects who received biofeedback training and 8 matched control subjects during three assessment periods: pretraining, posttraining, and one-week follow-up. Experimental subjects exhibited significant reductions in HR following a training session in which they received ongoing HR feedback while playing a videogame. Control subjects, who played the same number of videogames without HR feedback, showed smaller HR reductions. During the training session, all subjects were instructed to reduce HR while maximizing game performance. In comparison to controls, experimental subjects (a) maintained lower HRs during videogame presentations after a one-week period and (b) generalized these HR reductions to the mental arithmetic challenge at follow-up. Performance on the videogame declined from posttraining to follow-up for experimental subjects but not for control subjects. No group difference in mental arithmetic performance was observed.

Disordered drinking in developing spontaneously hypertensive rats.

Eating and drinking in spontaneously hypertensive (SHR) and Wistar-Kyoto (WKY) rats were measured at 5-17 wk of life. The SHR drank significantly more water in 24 h than WKY as early as wk 9, spilled more dry food than did WKY, and exhibited an inverse relation between 24-h water intake and dry food spilled. When eating a meal of dry food after 12 h food deprivation, SHR drank earlier and drank more in a 1-h test than WKY rats. Moreover, SHR exhibited (as early as wk 7) a striking pattern of interrupting eating to drink. This pattern was not present when SHR ate liquid food, and it was attenuated by infusion of water through a cheek fistula. Adult SHR (22 wk) salivated less than WKY in response to intraperitoneal 3.25 mg/kg pilocarpine nitrate. When developing SHR and WKY were maintained on liquid and solid food, SHR gained disproportionately more weight than WKY during development. When young SHR were permitted to drink no more water than WKY rats, the development of hypertension was retarded, and body weight gain was slowed. Because restricted access to food, which produced an equivalent slowing of body weight gain as did restricted access to water, also retarded development of hypertension, it appears that restricted access to water retards development of hypertension due to delayed growth. These results demonstrate that hyperdipsia, apparently caused by deficient salivary function, is not necessary for the development of hypertension in SHR.