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Psychic and somatic anxiety: worries, somatic symptoms and physiological changes
Author(s) -
HoehnSaric R.
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
acta psychiatrica scandinavica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.849
H-Index - 146
eISSN - 1600-0447
pISSN - 0001-690X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1600-0447.1998.tb05964.x
Subject(s) - anxiety , psychology , somatic anxiety , muscle tension , perception , psychic , somatic cell , clinical psychology , fight or flight response , developmental psychology , medicine , psychiatry , neuroscience , physical medicine and rehabilitation , biochemistry , chemistry , gene , alternative medicine , pathology
Contrary to self‐reports, patients with generalized anxiety disorder exhibit increased muscle tension but not autonomic hyperarousal. Under stress they tend to react autonomically in a less flexible manner than normal controls. There is only a weak relationship, and in some instances a desynchrony, between physiological changes and perception of change. The inconsistencies between self‐reports of physiological states and physiological recordings can be explained by alterations of body sensations through psychological factors, predominantly expectations of and attention to bodily states, that lead to perceptual distortions.