Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-l4dxg Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-15T03:57:33.211Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Influence of Anxiety on Accuracy of Heart Rate Estimations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 October 2014

Karen S. Butler  and
Ronald M. Rapee
Karen S. Butler
Affiliation:
University of Queensland
Ronald M. Rapee*
Affiliation:
University of Queensland
*
Department of Psychology, University of Queensland, Queensland 4072
Get access

Abstract

Twenty-eight non-clinical subjects, scoring either high or low on a variety of anxiety measures, were asked to match their perceived heart rate to a series of tones produced by a metronomal device, both at rest and during a period of mild exercise. Actual heart rate was measured concurrently with an electrocardiogram. No differences were found between groups in the accuracy with which they were able to monitor their heart rates and, in fact, all subjects markedly underestimated their heart rate. Also, no significant correlations were found between heart rate awareness and any of the measures of anxiety, except for a negative relationship between awareness and scores on the Anxiety Sensitivity Index. Theories of anxiety, and methodological considerations, are discussed.

Type
Research Article
Information
Behaviour Change , Volume 8 , Issue 3 , September 1991 , pp. 117 - 123
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 1991

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Barlow, D.H. (1988). Anxiety and its Disorders: The Nature and Treatment of Anxiety and Panic. New York: Guilford.Google Scholar
Barlow, D.H. (in press). The nature of anxiety: Anxiety, depression, and emotional disorders. In Rapee, R.M., & Barlow, D.H. (Eds.), Chronic anxiety, generalized anxiety disorder, and mixed anxiety-depression. New York: Guilford.Google Scholar
Blankstein, K.R., & Egner, K. (1974). Effects of trait anxiety on voluntary heart rate control and subjective tenseness. Psychophysiology, 11, 241–242.Google Scholar
Carroll, D. (1977). Cardiac perception and cardiac control. Biofeedback and Self-Regulation, 2, 349–369.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Clark, D.H. (1986). A cognitive approach to panic. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 24, 461–470.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ehlers, A. (1990). Interoception and selective attention in panic disorder. Paper presented at the 24th annual AABT convention, San Francisco, USA.Google Scholar
Ehlers, A., Margraf, J., Roth, W.T., Taylor, C.B., & Birbaumer, N. (1988). Anxiety induced by false heart rate feedback in patients with panic disorder. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 26, 2–11.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ingram, R.E. (1990). Self-focused attention in clinical disorders: Review and a conceptual model. Psychological Bulletin, 107, 156–176.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Johansson, J., & Ost, L. (1982). Perception of autonomic reactions and actual heart rate in phobic patients. Journal of Behavioural Assessment, 2, 133–143.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kellner, R. (1986). Somatization and Hypochondriasis. New York: Praeger.Google Scholar
Lovibond, S.H. (1982). Differentiation and measurement of anxiety, depression and tension-stress. Paper presented to Australian Psychological Society meeting, Perth, Western Australia.Google Scholar
McNally, R., & Lorenz, M. (1987). Anxiety sensitivity in agoraphobics. Journal of Behaviour Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry, 18, 3–11.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mandler, G., Mandler, J., & Uvillier, E. (1958). Autonomie feedback: The perception of autonomic activity. Journal of Abnormal & Social Psychology, 56, 367–373.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Margraf, J., & Ehlers, A. (1990). Etiological models of panic — psychophysiological and cognitive aspects. In Baker, R. (Ed.), Panic disorder: Theory, research and therapy. New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Rapee, R. (1987). The psychological treatment of panic attacks: Theoretical conceptualization and review of evidence. Clinical Psychology Review, 7, 427–438.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rapee, R.M., Ancis, J.R., & Barlow, D.H. (1988). Emotional reactions to physiological sensations: Panic disorder patients and non-clinical Ss. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 26, 265–269.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Reiss, S., Peterson, R.A., Gursky, D.M., & McNally, R.J. (1986). Anxiety sensitivity, anxiety frequency and the prediction of fearfulness. Behaviour Research & Therapy, 24, 1–8.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tyrer, P., Lee, I., & Alexander, J. (1980). Awareness of cardiac function in anxious, phobic and hypochondriacal patients. Psychological Medicine, 10, 171–174.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed