Citation

Schechter DS, Moser DA, McCaw JE, Myers MM. Dev. Psychobiol. 2014; 56(4): 748-760.

Affiliation

Psychiatry (Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry), University of Geneva Faculty of Medicine, Geneva, Switzerland. daniel.schechter@hcuge.ch.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2014, John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1002/dev.21144

PMID

23754187

Abstract

This study characterizes autonomic nervous system activity reactive to separation-reunion among mothers with Interpersonal Violence-Related Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (IPV-PTSD). Heart-rate (HR) and high frequency heart-rate-variability (HF-HRV) were measured in 17 IPV-PTSD-mothers, 22 sub-threshold-mothers, and 15 non-PTSD mother-controls while interacting with their toddlers (12-48 months). Analyses showed IPV-PTSD-mothers having generally lower HR than other groups. All groups showed negative correlations between changes in HR and HF-HRV from sitting- to standing-baseline. During initial separation, controls no longer showed a negative relationship between HR and HF-HRV. But by the second reunion, the negative relationship reappeared. IPV-PTSD- and sub-threshold-mothers retained negative HR/HF-HRV correlations during the initial separation, but stopped showing them by the second reunion. Results support that mother-controls showed a pattern of autonomic regulation suggestive of hypervigilance during initial separation that resolved by the time of re-exposure. PTSD-mothers showed delayed onset of this pattern only upon re-exposure, and were perhaps exhibiting defensive avoidance or numbing during the initial separation/reunion. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Dev Psychobiol 9999: 1-13, 2013.

Language: en