Anxiety and arousal: physiological changes and their perception
Abstract
Contrary to self-reports, most patients with chronic anxiety disorders exhibit increased muscle tension but not autonomic hyperarousal when at rest. Under everyday stress they tend to react with less physiological flexibility than normal controls. However, they overreact subjectively and physiologically to stimuli that are anxiety-provoking. Diminished physiological flexibility may be either a constitutional trait in anxious individuals, a partial but inadequate adaptation to prolonged stress or the result of a disregard for stressors that are not related to psychopathology. The effects of diminished physiological flexibility on general health are not known. There is only a weak relationship, and in some instances a desynchrony, between physiological changes and perception of change under stress. The inconsistencies between self-reports of physiological states and physiological recordings can be explained by alterations of body sensations through psychological factors, predominantly expectations and attention to bodily states, that lead to perceptual distortions.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Internal cues may be stronger in those with panic/anxiety, for example due to higher arousal.
“Alternatively, internal cues may be stronger in those with panic/anxiety (e.g., higher arousal; Hoehn-Saric and Mcleod, 2000; Paulus and Stein, 2010).”
From Atypical interoception as a common risk factor for psychopathology: A review (2021) · cites this paper as Hoehn-Saric and Mcleod, 2000
Cites
Contingent negative variation (CNV) and psychological processes in man
Tecce, J. J. (1972) · Psychological Bulletin · doi:10.1037/h0032177 · Cited by 671 · see citing works
I. Synchrony and desynchrony in fear and avoidance
Rachman, S., & Hodgson, R. (1974) · Behaviour Research and Therapy · doi:10.1016/0005-7967(74)90005-9 · Cited by 500 · see citing works
Wilkinson, D. J. C., Thompson, J. M., Lambert, G. W., Jennings, G. L., Schwarz, R. G., Jefferys, D., Turner, A. G., & Esler, M. D. (1998) · Archives of General Psychiatry · doi:10.1001/archpsyc.55.6.511 · Cited by 214 · see citing works
(1988) · American Journal of Psychiatry · doi:10.1176/ajp.145.10.1207 · Cited by 213 · see citing works
Hoehn-Saric, R. (1989) · Archives of General Psychiatry · doi:10.1001/archpsyc.1989.01810120055009 · Cited by 209 · see citing works
Self-citation
Flagged first, then by citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Hair cortisol, stress exposure, and mental health in humans: A systematic review
Staufenbiel, S. M., Penninx, B. W. J. H., Spijker, A. T., Elzinga, B. M., & van Rossum, E. F. C. (2013) · Psychoneuroendocrinology · doi:10.1016/j.psyneuen.2012.11.015 · Cited by 736 · see citing works
Cardiac autonomic balance versus cardiac regulatory capacity
Berntson, G. G., Norman, G. J., Hawkley, L. C., & Cacioppo, J. T. (2008) · Psychophysiology · doi:10.1111/j.1469-8986.2008.00652.x · Cited by 290 · see citing works
The psychophysiology of anxiety disorder: Fear memory imagery
Cuthbert, B. N., Lang, P. J., Strauss, C., Drobes, D., Patrick, C. J., & Bradley, M. M. (2003) · Psychophysiology · doi:10.1111/1469-8986.00043 · Cited by 285 · see citing works
Psychometric Properties of the Climate Change Worry Scale
Stewart, A. E. (2021) · International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health · doi:10.3390/ijerph18020494 · Cited by 286 · see citing works
Hoehn-Saric, R., McLeod, D. R., Funderburk, F., & Kowalski, P. (2004) · Archives of General Psychiatry · doi:10.1001/archpsyc.61.9.913 · Cited by 217 · see citing works
Self-citationChen, Y., Yang, X., Wang, L., & Zhang, X. (2013) · Nurse Education Today · doi:10.1016/j.nedt.2012.11.014 · Cited by 189 · see citing works
Atypical interoception as a common risk factor for psychopathology: A review
Brewer, R., Murphy, J., & Bird, G. (2021) · Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews · doi:10.1016/j.neubiorev.2021.07.036 · Cited by 180 · see citing works
The worried mind: Autonomic and prefrontal activation during worrying
Hofmann, S. G., Moscovitch, D. A., Litz, B. T., Kim, H.-J., Davis, L. L., & Pizzagalli, D. A. (2005) · Emotion · doi:10.1037/1528-3542.5.4.464 · Cited by 167 · see citing works
Dieleman, G. C., Huizink, A. C., Tulen, J. H. M., Utens, E. M. W. J., Creemers, H. E., van der Ende, J., & Verhulst, F. C. (2015) · Psychoneuroendocrinology · doi:10.1016/j.psyneuen.2014.09.002 · Cited by 141 · see citing works
Malay Version of the Fear of COVID-19 Scale: Validity and Reliability
Pang, N. T. P., Kamu, A., Hambali, N. L. B., Mun, H. C., Kassim, M. A., Mohamed, N. H., Ayu, F., Rahim, S. S. S. A., Omar, A., & Jeffree, M. S. (2022) · International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction · doi:10.1007/s11469-020-00355-4 · Cited by 122 · see citing works
Spirituality and Autonomic Cardiac Control
Berntson, G. G., Norman, G. J., Hawkley, L. C., & Cacioppo, J. T. (2008) · Annals of Behavioral Medicine · doi:10.1007/s12160-008-9027-x · Cited by 103 · see citing works
Chamberlain, P. D., Rodgers, J., Crowley, M. J., White, S. E., Freeston, M. H., & South, M. (2013) · Molecular Autism · doi:10.1186/2040-2392-4-31 · Cited by 99 · see citing works
Mind-Body Interactions in Anxiety and Somatic Symptoms
Mallorquí-Bagué, N., Bulbena, A., Pailhez, G., Garfinkel, S. N., & Critchley, H. D. (2016) · Harvard Review of Psychiatry · doi:10.1097/hrp.0000000000000085 · Cited by 96 · see citing works
Andor, T., Gerlach, A. L., & Rist, F. (2008) · Journal of Abnormal Psychology · doi:10.1037/0021-843x.117.1.193 · Cited by 80 · see citing works
Teed, A. R., Feinstein, J. S., Puhl, M., Lapidus, R. C., Upshaw, V., Kuplicki, R. T., Bodurka, J., Ajijola, O. A., Kaye, W. H., Thompson, W. K., et al. (2022) · JAMA Psychiatry · doi:10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2021.4225 · Cited by 79 · see citing works
Assessing a hyperarousal hypothesis of insomnia in adults with autism spectrum disorder
Baker, E. K., Richdale, A. L., Hazi, A., & Prendergast, L. A. (2019) · Autism Research · doi:10.1002/aur.2094 · Cited by 42 · see citing works
Limmer, J., Kornhuber, J., & Martin, A. (2015) · Journal of Affective Disorders · doi:10.1016/j.jad.2015.07.010 · Cited by 39 · see citing works
Hyperventilation in patients with chronic fatigue syndrome: The role of coping strategies
Bogaerts, K., Hubin, M., Van Diest, I., De Peuter, S., Van Houdenhove, B., Van Wambeke, P., Crombez, G., & Van den Bergh, O. (2007) · Behaviour Research and Therapy · doi:10.1016/j.brat.2007.07.003 · Cited by 22 · see citing works
- Authors
- Hoehn-Saric, R., & McLeod, D. R.
- Affiliations
- Johns Hopkins University (US)
- Venue
- Journal of Affective Disorders
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2000-12
- Volume
- 61
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 217-224
- ISSN
- 0165-0327 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2071872094
- Cited by
- 235
- References
- 5
- Citations by year
- 2026: 19 · 2025: 34 · 2024: 18 · 2023: 10 · 2022: 8 · 2021: 13 · 2020: 9 · 2019: 16 · 2018: 7 · 2017: 4 · 2016: 7 · 2015: 8 · 2014: 9 · 2013: 11 · 2012: 6
- FWCI
- 0.43
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal of Affective Disorders (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institute of Mental Health (IRO1MH42579, 1RO1MH35435)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Psychosomatic Disorders and Their Treatments
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Cardiology and Cardiovascular Medicine › Heart Rate Variability and Autonomic Control
- Keywords
- anxiety, muscle tension, physiological flexibility, stress response, bodily sensations, expectations
- MeSH terms
- Adaptation, Psychological, Anxiety Disorders, Arousal, Attention, Humans, Perceptual Distortion, Somatoform Disorders
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
