Depression and cardiovascular reactions to acute psychological stress: Is anhedonia the driver?

Blunted cardiovascular reactions in response to acute psychological stress are predictive of future health risk. A large body of research has identified depression as an influential factor associated with blunted cardiovascular reactivity. Separately, there has been a resurgence in focus on anhedonia as a key feature of depression, responsible for poor treatment responses to non-improvement in cardiac event-free survival.

Patterns of adaptation to stress cardiovascular responses in smokers during ad libitum smoking and withdrawal.

There is considerable evidence documenting associations between tobacco smoking, including initiation, maintenance, and relapse of addiction, with diminished cardiovascular responses to acute psychological stress. However, less is known about how smokers respond to repeated stress across time. The current study examined patterns of cardiovascular reactivity and adaptation to recurrent stress among 24-h abstinence smokers, smokers who continued to smoke at their normal rate, and non-smokers.

Social participation is associated with a habituated blood pressure response to recurrent stress.

Lower cardiovascular reactivity is a proposed marker of motivational dysregulation and is related to a range of adverse behavioural and health outcomes. Social participation is a form of motivated behaviour and represents the frequency in which an individual engages in social activities. Low social participation has recently been linked to lower cardiovascular responses to acute psychological stress.

Behavioural clusters characteristic of cardiovascular reactivity profiles relate to poorer health outcomes.

Objectives: Blunted cardiovascular reactivity is associated with a distinct behavioural profile of greater exposure to early life adversity, coupled with higher levels of behavioural disengagement and symptoms of depression. The present study sought to extend on this work by investigating if behavioural clusters with distinct patterns of reactivity were related to health and behavioural outcomes at baseline and at a 4-year follow-up.

Methods: Hierarchical cluster analyses were conducted using longitudinal data drawn from the Midlife Development in the United States (MIDUS 2) Biomarker Project and the MIDUS 3 follow-up 4 years later.

Cluster analysis reveals distinct patterns of childhood adversity, behavioral disengagement, and depression that predict blunted heart rate reactivity to acute psychological stress.

Background: There is considerable evidence documenting associations between early life adversity, behavioral disengagement, and depression with blunted cardiovascular reactivity to acute psychological stress. However, while often examined as independent predictors, it is also likely that a combination of these factors uniquely relate to cardiovascular reactivity.

Purpose: The present study employed multivariate cluster analysis to examine if distinct combinations of these outcomes relate to cardiovascular stress reactivity.

Smokers show an altered hemodynamic profile to active stress: Evidence of a dysregulated stress response in young adults.

Tobacco smoking has been associated with lower cardiovascular reactivity to psychological stress in middle-aged samples, but its impact on cardiovascular reactivity to stress in young adults remains unclear. The present study examined whether young healthy adults showed differing cardiovascular stress reaction profiles depending on their smoking status. Across two laboratory studies (N = 64 and N = 114), we asked participants to complete cognitive stress-tasks while undergoing continuous hemodynamic monitoring.

Type D personality is associated with lower cardiovascular reactivity to stress in women.

Objective: This study examines if Type D personality is (1) associated with cardiovascular reactivity to acute stress in a healthy sample, and (2) has predictive utility for cardiovascular reactivity above its individual subcomponents (negative affect; NA, social inhibition; SI), as well as anxiety and depression.

Design: Undergraduate students ( = 173) competed a standardised cardiovascular reactivity experimental protocol consisting of resting baseline and stressor phase (mental arithmetic), with systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP) and heart rate (HR) monitored throughout.

Main Outcome Measures: The main outcome measures were cardiovascular reactivity to the stressor, which was operationalised as the difference between resting baseline and the stressor phase for SBP, DBP and HR.

Early Life Adversity and Blunted Cardiovascular Reactivity to Acute Psychological Stress: The Role of Current Depressive Symptoms.

Objective: The pathways underlying the early life adversity and cardiovascular reactivity association remain unclear. The current study examined the role of current depressive symptoms on this relationship.

Methods: Mediation analyses were conducted using data from 639 participants drawn from the Midlife Development in the United States 2 Biomarker Project.

Motivational orientation mediates the association between depression and cardiovascular reactivity to acute psychological stress.

Recent theoretical developments in cardiovascular reactivity research suggest the association between depression and blunted reactions to stress is linked to motivational factors. Thus, the present study aimed to test whether the association between depressive symptoms and cardiovascular reactivity to acute stress was mediated by motivation; be it intrinsic or extrinsic motivation. One hundred and eighty-two healthy young adults completed measures of motivation (Global Motivation Scale; GMS), and depression (Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale; HADS) and had their blood pressure and heart rate monitored throughout a standardised stress testing protocol.