Three‐year stability of cardiovascular and autonomic nervous system responses to psychological stress

Abstract

Chronically heightened physiological reactivity to or delayed recovery from stress may contribute to cardiovascular (CV) risk and mortality. Long-term stability of physiological stress responses has received little attention. Our objectives were to evaluate the 3-year stability of reactivity and recovery change scores across CV and autonomic parameters and assess whether sex and age moderate stability. A total of 134 healthy participants underwent two laboratory stress protocols, including four 5-min interpersonal stressors, each followed by a 5-min recovery period. Heart rate (HR), blood pressure (BP), and HR variability (high frequency, low frequency, very low frequency [VLF]) were obtained. Spearman rank correlations and linear regressions were performed. Significant correlations emerged for all physiological measures except diastolic BP and VLF recovery. No significant sex or age differences were found. Stress responses represent stable individual traits little affected by sex or age.

Trait Hostility and Acute Inflammatory Responses to Stress in the Laboratory

“…All four tasks have led to significant affective and physiological reactivity in prior studies [ 36 , 39 , 40 ], and their efficacy in inducing stress across emotional, cardiovascular and autonomic measures were demonstrated in the current study as well (for details, see [ 32 ]). Participants were videotaped throughout the protocol and told that their performance would be rated to increase motivation and stressfulness of the tasks.…”

“…Spectral analysis of HRV was performed off-line using Fast Fourier Transformations of the interbeat intervals (RR) in MATLAB using published algorithms [ 53 , 54 ] that characterize the high frequency (HF; 0.15-.040 Hz) and the low frequency (LF; 0.04–0.15 Hz) as recommended by the Task Force of the European Society of Cardiology and the North American Society of Pacing and Electrophysiology (1996). For more information about HRV measurements, please see Dragomir et al [ 32 ].…”

Psychological Profiles in the Prediction of Leukocyte Telomere Length in Healthy Individuals

“…BP, heart rate (HR) and heart-rate variability (HRV); high frequency heart rate variability (HF-HRV), normalized high frequency (HFnu), low frequency (LF-HRV), and ratio (LF/HF)) readings were averaged over each baseline, stress, and post-stress period. The four stress periods were averaged to create a composite stress and post-stress score, as per our prior research (see for more details see [55, 59]. Stress reactivity (stress−baseline) and recovery (post-stress score−baseline) change scores were then created as per established methods [71].…”

Toward a social psychophysiology of vagally mediated heart rate variability: Concepts and methods in self‐regulation, emotion, and interpersonal processes

“…Studies of individual differences in the magnitude of decreases in vmHRV in response to various challenges among children generally indicate that greater vagal withdrawal is associated with better emotional adjustment, social functioning, and school performance (Graziano & Derefinko, 2013), consistent with the view that availability of this physiological mechanism supports efficient and effective adaption. Individual differences in vmHRV reactivity have been less frequently studied in adults, but evidence suggests that vmHRV reactivity to cognitive tasks and psychological stressors is stable across challenges and time (Dragomir, Gentile, Nolan, & D'Antono, 2014;Muhtadie et al, 2015;Sloan, Shapiro, Bagiella, Gorman, & Bigger, 1995;Uchino, Holt-Lunstad, Bloor, & Campo, 2005), and demonstrates significant heritability (Wang et al, 2009).…”