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The Effects of Psychological Stress on Respiration: A Preliminary Study of Anxiety and Hyperventilation
Author(s) -
Suess William M.,
Alexander A. Barney,
Smith Deborah D.,
Sweeney Helga W.,
Marion Richard J.
Publication year - 1980
Publication title -
psychophysiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.661
H-Index - 156
eISSN - 1469-8986
pISSN - 0048-5772
DOI - 10.1111/j.1469-8986.1980.tb02293.x
Subject(s) - hyperventilation , anxiety , psychology , respiration , heart rate , shock (circulatory) , stressor , respiratory rate , stress (linguistics) , audiology , clinical psychology , blood pressure , medicine , psychiatry , linguistics , philosophy , anatomy
The occurrence of hyperventilation (overbreathing resulting in lowered end‐tidal CO 2 ) in conjunction with psychological stress was investigated. Twenty‐nine normal subjects were individually placed in a stress condition by being required to make perceptual judgments under threat of electric shock for exceeding a specified number of errors. Feedback of errors was controlled by the experimenter and no subject was ever shocked since manipulated feedback never exceeded shock criterion. Stress induction consisted of four phases: request for participation, subject decision, pre‐task instruction, and task. Dependent measures consisted of end‐tidal CO 2 , respiration rate, heart rate, and State Anxiety scores. Stress manipulation was confirmed by significantly increased heart rate and anxiety scores from baseline values. Baseline comparisons indicated significant decreases in end‐tidal CO 2 (i.e., hyperventilation) for all phases as well as significant increases in respiration rate for all phases but one. Comparisons among several phases revealed significant changes in end‐tidal CO 2 either unaccompanied by or uncorrelated with changes in respiration rate. These results: 1) support the occurrence of hyperventilation to stress in normals, 2) suggest that respiration rate alone is an insufficient measure of respiratory reactivity to psychological stimuli, and 3) are discussed in terms of more appropriate functional assessments of respiratory response to stress.