Association of Autonomic Activation with traumatic reminder challenges in posttraumatic stress disorder: A co-twin control study.

ABSTRACT: Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) has been associated with cardiovascular disease (CVD), but the mechanisms remain unclear. Autonomic dysfunction, associated with higher CVD risk, may be triggered by acute PTSD symptoms. We hypothesized that a laboratory-based trauma reminder challenge, which induces acute PTSD symptoms, provokes autonomic dysfunction in a cohort of veteran twins. We investigated PTSD-associated real-time physiologic changes with a simulation of traumatic experiences in which the twins listened to audio recordings of a one-minute neutral script followed by a one-minute trauma script. We examined two heart rate variability metrics: deceleration capacity (DC) and logarithmic low frequency (log-LF) power from beat-to-beat intervals extracted from ambulatory electrocardiog

SUBMITTER: Perez Alday EA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10157622 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature