- Email: [email protected]
223 Gender differences in cardiovascular response to stress in coronary patients
88
Abstracts
/International
Journal
the task can be perceived as a challenge (arousing/exciting), it then has autonomic arousal effects (increased sympathetic relative to parasympathetic activation) as active coping brings success. However, a task may initially be seen as a challenge, but with repeated lack of mastery it becomes a stressor, frequently accompanied by a switch from active coping to passive coping: i.e. from sympathetic dominance to parasympathetic dominance in the ANS. If the task is seen as absolutely imperative, but is nevertheless a chronic stressor (e.g. a long-lasting, repetitive, fast-paced job at the workplace), then attempts to maintain coping are associated with increased sympathetic activity and raised adrenaline output. Salivary potassium ion concentration [K + ] is strongly influenced by the sympathetic/parasympathetic balance in salivary gland control. Our experiments, and those of others, have found that increased salivary [K + ] occurs with task challenge, but when the task becomes demotivating as in very high psystress, then salivary [K + I is depressed. The state of psystress can be indicated by salivary cortisol increase with an extreme stressor, but a more sensitive index appears to be salivary sodium ion concentration [Na + ] which is reduced as a result of increased output of aldosterone causing [NJ+ ] reabsorption in the lumen of the duct. A search of the literature on tasks referred to as ‘stressors’ shows that generally neither PC1 nor PERNOS are measured before stating that a task is a stressor, so frequently the tasks could be perceived as ‘challenges’ and accompanying psychophysiological reactions misinterpr ted as stress-reactions. 5. Psychophysiological measures are requrred of the responses referred to above, to provide necessary differentiation between stress-response and arousal reactions. Salivary indices can be used to do this, and an overview of research is presented to illustrate it.
223 GENDER DIFFERENCES IN CARDIOVASCULAR RESPONSE TO STRESS IN CORONARY PATIENTS E W Thornton* and C N Hallas Dept of Psychology, University of Liverpool, 3BX, U.K.
Liverpool
L69
Elderly coronary patients (post 60 yr.) hospitalised for either MI (N = 30; males = 19) or angina (N = 15; males = 8) were psychologically assessed for mood status four weeks after their admission. Their cardiovascular responses (systolic and diastolic blood pressures - SBP, DBP and-heart rate -HR) to both laboratory stressors and self-reported stress in a normal day during ambulatory monitoring were documented at either eighteen months (MI patients) or six months (angina patients). The laboratory stressors were selected on the basis of the different level of autonomic challenge they exert. Results showed that angina patients experienced significantly more distress than MI patients and that women were more anxious and depressed than men in each group of patients, both at the initial post-episode assessment and at
of Psychophysiology
30 (1998)
7-94
later psychophysiological testing. Female MI patients showed elevated baseline, ambulatory and self-initialised blood pressure responses compared to males. However, the converse was the case for angina patients; women reported less negative affect and lower baseline, ambulatory and self-initialised blood pressure response to stress than men. Baseline responses were significantly related to mood status. Diastolic blood pressure did not show gender differences for either group of patient during laboratory challenge. Systolic blood pressure increases to laboratory challenge were greater for men than women, but only in MI patients. These data indicate that cardiovascular activity and reactivity in coronary patients of different gender show complex interactions with diagnostic group, mood status and procedures for assessment and this precludes a unitary sex stereotyping of such responses.
224 MNESTIC BLOCK SYNDROME - NEUROIMAGING AND NEUROPSYCHOLOGICAL CORRELATES H.J. Markowitsch* Physiological Psychology, University of Bielefeld, P.O. Box 10 01 31, D-33501 Bielefeld, Germany In neurology, amnesia is traditionally regarded as the consequence of some focal brain damage in a bottleneck structure of the limbic system. In psychiatry, cases with amnesia are referred to as psychogenic amnesics and it is assumed that they do not suffer from brain damage. We recently have shown with positron-emission-tomography that patients with amnesia of psychic origin may show significant alterations in their brain metabolism (Markowitsch et al., Neuropsychologia, 1998, 36, 77-82) and in their cerebral blood flow towards autobiographic information (Markowitsch et al., Cognit. Neuropsychiat., 1997,2, 135-158). Based on these and other cases it is proposed that especially those individuals who failed to process stress-related events appropriately in childhood, and/or who were exposed to massive and prolonged stress during later life, may develop a ‘mnestic block syndrome’ which is accompanied by a dysregulation in the release of glucocorticoids and GABAagonists. This dysregulation is accompanied by massive cognitive deteriorations, above all by memory disturbances. Case descriptions of patients with a ‘mnestic block syndrome’, investigated with static and dynamic neuroimaging and neuropsychologically and followed-up for time periods up to several years, will be presented to support the thesis that environmental stress can alter cognitive behavior and brain function to a degree which is measurable and quantifiable both neuropsychologically and by dynamic neuroimaging.
225 CHANGING ACTIONS BY PROCESSES
PSYCHOBIOLOGICAL MANIPULATING
Sonja Huwe-Rohrmann*,
STRESS RECOGNITIVE
Juergen Hennig and Petra Netter
Abstracts
/International
Journal
the task can be perceived as a challenge (arousing/exciting), it then has autonomic arousal effects (increased sympathetic relative to parasympathetic activation) as active coping brings success. However, a task may initially be seen as a challenge, but with repeated lack of mastery it becomes a stressor, frequently accompanied by a switch from active coping to passive coping: i.e. from sympathetic dominance to parasympathetic dominance in the ANS. If the task is seen as absolutely imperative, but is nevertheless a chronic stressor (e.g. a long-lasting, repetitive, fast-paced job at the workplace), then attempts to maintain coping are associated with increased sympathetic activity and raised adrenaline output. Salivary potassium ion concentration [K + ] is strongly influenced by the sympathetic/parasympathetic balance in salivary gland control. Our experiments, and those of others, have found that increased salivary [K + ] occurs with task challenge, but when the task becomes demotivating as in very high psystress, then salivary [K + I is depressed. The state of psystress can be indicated by salivary cortisol increase with an extreme stressor, but a more sensitive index appears to be salivary sodium ion concentration [Na + ] which is reduced as a result of increased output of aldosterone causing [NJ+ ] reabsorption in the lumen of the duct. A search of the literature on tasks referred to as ‘stressors’ shows that generally neither PC1 nor PERNOS are measured before stating that a task is a stressor, so frequently the tasks could be perceived as ‘challenges’ and accompanying psychophysiological reactions misinterpr ted as stress-reactions. 5. Psychophysiological measures are requrred of the responses referred to above, to provide necessary differentiation between stress-response and arousal reactions. Salivary indices can be used to do this, and an overview of research is presented to illustrate it.
223 GENDER DIFFERENCES IN CARDIOVASCULAR RESPONSE TO STRESS IN CORONARY PATIENTS E W Thornton* and C N Hallas Dept of Psychology, University of Liverpool, 3BX, U.K.
Liverpool
L69
Elderly coronary patients (post 60 yr.) hospitalised for either MI (N = 30; males = 19) or angina (N = 15; males = 8) were psychologically assessed for mood status four weeks after their admission. Their cardiovascular responses (systolic and diastolic blood pressures - SBP, DBP and-heart rate -HR) to both laboratory stressors and self-reported stress in a normal day during ambulatory monitoring were documented at either eighteen months (MI patients) or six months (angina patients). The laboratory stressors were selected on the basis of the different level of autonomic challenge they exert. Results showed that angina patients experienced significantly more distress than MI patients and that women were more anxious and depressed than men in each group of patients, both at the initial post-episode assessment and at
of Psychophysiology
30 (1998)
7-94
later psychophysiological testing. Female MI patients showed elevated baseline, ambulatory and self-initialised blood pressure responses compared to males. However, the converse was the case for angina patients; women reported less negative affect and lower baseline, ambulatory and self-initialised blood pressure response to stress than men. Baseline responses were significantly related to mood status. Diastolic blood pressure did not show gender differences for either group of patient during laboratory challenge. Systolic blood pressure increases to laboratory challenge were greater for men than women, but only in MI patients. These data indicate that cardiovascular activity and reactivity in coronary patients of different gender show complex interactions with diagnostic group, mood status and procedures for assessment and this precludes a unitary sex stereotyping of such responses.
224 MNESTIC BLOCK SYNDROME - NEUROIMAGING AND NEUROPSYCHOLOGICAL CORRELATES H.J. Markowitsch* Physiological Psychology, University of Bielefeld, P.O. Box 10 01 31, D-33501 Bielefeld, Germany In neurology, amnesia is traditionally regarded as the consequence of some focal brain damage in a bottleneck structure of the limbic system. In psychiatry, cases with amnesia are referred to as psychogenic amnesics and it is assumed that they do not suffer from brain damage. We recently have shown with positron-emission-tomography that patients with amnesia of psychic origin may show significant alterations in their brain metabolism (Markowitsch et al., Neuropsychologia, 1998, 36, 77-82) and in their cerebral blood flow towards autobiographic information (Markowitsch et al., Cognit. Neuropsychiat., 1997,2, 135-158). Based on these and other cases it is proposed that especially those individuals who failed to process stress-related events appropriately in childhood, and/or who were exposed to massive and prolonged stress during later life, may develop a ‘mnestic block syndrome’ which is accompanied by a dysregulation in the release of glucocorticoids and GABAagonists. This dysregulation is accompanied by massive cognitive deteriorations, above all by memory disturbances. Case descriptions of patients with a ‘mnestic block syndrome’, investigated with static and dynamic neuroimaging and neuropsychologically and followed-up for time periods up to several years, will be presented to support the thesis that environmental stress can alter cognitive behavior and brain function to a degree which is measurable and quantifiable both neuropsychologically and by dynamic neuroimaging.
225 CHANGING ACTIONS BY PROCESSES
PSYCHOBIOLOGICAL MANIPULATING
Sonja Huwe-Rohrmann*,
STRESS RECOGNITIVE
Juergen Hennig and Petra Netter