INTRODUCTION METHOD RESULTS Correspondence to: Autonomic reactivity in high and low trait worry Recruitment phase 450 female undergraduates screened with the Penn State Worry Questionnaire (PSWQ; 16 item validated trait measure of worry; Meyer et al. 1990) Of 330 eligible subjects, those scoring in the upper and lower third on the PSWQ classified as high and low worry 21 in the low worry group (M PSWQ = 37.7), 17 in the high worry group (M PSWQ = 67.3) selected for laboratory phase Laboratory phase Dependent CV measures: HR, low (0.04–0.15 Hz) and high (0.15–0.40 Hz) frequency HR spectral power, pre-ejection period (PEP), systolic and diastolic blood pressure (BP) Electrocardiogram, Impedance cardiogram recorded with Ambulatory Monitoring System v4.4 BP recorded with IBS SD-700A automated monitor Presented at the 66 th Annual Meeting of the American Psychosomatic Society, Baltimore, MD, March 2008 Bruce H. Friedman & Michael M. Knepp HR Across All Epochs PEP During Orthostatic Post-Task Period PEP Change Between First and Second Epoch Halves Procedure Three task sets: (1) Body position: orthostatic stress & supine rest (2) Active/passive stress: mental arithmetic & hand cold pressor (3) Imagery: relaxation & worry Three-minute CV recording periods: baseline, task, and recovery plus initial anticipatory baseline upon arrival at lab Task order counterbalanced within, but not across task sets 2 (group: low vs. high worry) x 18 (condition: baseline, task, and recovery) repeated measures ANCOVAs with BMI group as covariate BMI groups: (underweight); (normal); (overweight); and >30.0 (obese). High worriers had higher HR than low worriers across tasks (F(1,35)=4.84, p<.05) No group X task interactions on HR; no other significant main effects for group on any other CV variable than HR PEP (beta-adrenergic sympathetic index) longer in low worriers in recovery from orthostatic stress (F(1,33)=6.09, p<.02) Low worriers showed greater PEP increases between the first and second halves of the recovery periods following hand cold pressor (F(1,33)=6.10, p<.02) and worry imagery (F(1,33)=5.193; p<.05) HR higher in the high (M = 81.4 b.p.m., SD = 2.4) than low (M = 72.2 b.p.m., SD = 2.3) worry group during anticipatory baseline (F (1, 35) =7.282, p<.02) High trait worry: robust HR elevations across conditions Overall absence of (a) interactions (b) differences in autonomic measures Possible mechanism: Elevation of intrinsic HR Limited evidence of delayed sympathetic recovery in the high worry group following certain stressors Limitations Fatigue effects may have diluted CV responses to imagery Findings applicable only to young adult women Low temporal sensitivity may mask recovery findings Implications & future studies Chronic high HR is a risk factor for all-cause mortality (Palatini & Julius, 1997); may mediate worry-CVD link Focus on individual task sets Use of clinical samples (Generalized anxiety disorder) Replication in men and other age groups Epidemiologic studies show anxiety to be an independent risk factor for cardiovascular disease (CVD) (Haines et al., 1987; Kawachi et al., 1994a,b) Anxiety in its clinical, trait, and state forms is associated with low cardiac vagal control, as indexed through heart rate variability (HRV) analysis (Friedman, 2007) Worry may be a risk factor for CVD via its relation with perseveration and delayed CV recovery (Brosschot et al., 2006) Longitudinal data indicate that social worry in men is associated with increased CVD risk (Kubzansky et al., 1997) Aim: to examine the relation between trait worry and CV reactivity/recovery to a range of laboratory tasks Primary Hypotheses: High worriers will have increased CV reactivity & delayed recovery across tasks lower vagal tone & increased sympathetic responding Exploratory: Do specific tasks evoke particularly large CV reactivity/delayed recovery in high worriers? CONCLUSIONS