Distinct responses to predictable and unpredictable threat in anxiety pathologies: effect of panic attack.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Delineating specific clinical phenotypes of anxiety disorders is a crucial step toward better classification and understanding of these conditions. The present study sought to identify differential aversive responses to predictable and unpredictable threat of shock in healthy comparisons and in non-medicated anxiety patients with and without a history of panic attacks (PAs).

Method

143 adults (72 healthy controls; 71 patients with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) or/and social anxiety disorder (SAD), 24 with and 47 without PAs) were exposed to three conditions: 1) predictable shocks signaled by a cue, 2) unpredictable shocks, and 3) no shock. Startle magnitude was used to assess aversive responses.

Results

Across disorders, a PA history was specifically a

SUBMITTER: Grillon C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5665581 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature