Enhanced Startle Reactions to Acoustic Stimuli in Patients With Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

OBJECTIVE: Anxiety states induced experimentally or occurring naturally potentiate the startle reflex elicited by sudden sensory stimuli in both animals and human beings. The authors investigated whether patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) show exaggerated startle reactions to acoustic...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The American journal of psychiatry 2001-01, Vol.158 (1), p.134-136
Main Authors: Kumari, Veena, Kaviani, Hossein, Raven, Peter W., Gray, Jeffrey A., Checkley, Stuart A.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Acoustic Stimulation
Adult
Adult and adolescent clinical studies
Affect - physiology
Anxiety disorders. Neuroses
Biological and medical sciences
Comparative studies
Female
Hospitalization
Humans
Male
Medical sciences
Motion Pictures
Neuroses
Obsessive compulsive disorder
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder - diagnosis
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder - psychology
Obsessive-compulsive disorders
Obsessive-Compulsive neuroses
Psychology
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychopathology. Psychiatry
Reaction Time - physiology
Reflex, Startle - physiology
Reflexes
Sensory perception
Sound
Startle eyeblink response
Visual Perception - physiology
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Summary:OBJECTIVE: Anxiety states induced experimentally or occurring naturally potentiate the startle reflex elicited by sudden sensory stimuli in both animals and human beings. The authors investigated whether patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) show exaggerated startle reactions to acoustic probes, especially during negative-affect-toned stimuli, compared with healthy subjects. METHOD: Ten patients with OCD and 10 age- and sex-matched comparison subjects were shown a series of film clips. Two of the film clips had positive valence, two had negative valence, and two had relatively neutral valence. The subjects' eyeblink startle response was measured in reaction to startle-eliciting stimuli presented three times binaurally during each film clip. RESULTS: Patients with OCD produced larger startle reflexes and shorter latencies to onset of startle response than the comparison subjects over the entire session. CONCLUSIONS: Patients with OCD were excessively responsive to startle-eliciting stimuli. This effect may be associated with the development or maintenance of OCD.
ISSN:0002-953X
1535-7228
DOI:10.1176/appi.ajp.158.1.134