The Effect of Worry on Physiological and Affective Reactivity to Emotional Stimuli in Generalized Anxiety Disorder and Normal Participants

The purpose of this study was examination of effect of worry on both physiological and emotional responding to negative emotional stimuli. This study was a semi-experimental research design with pretest, posttest and control group. 41 participants with generalized anxiety disorder (21 person induce relaxation and 20 person induce worry) and 39 nonanxious control participants (19 person induce relaxation and 20 person induce worry) were randomly assigned to engage in worry and relaxation inductions prior to exposure to fear and sadness-inducing film clips. Participants of this study were assessed by positive and negetive affect and the pulse oximetery equipment. Results indicated that worry leads to reduced heart rate and negative affect responding to the fearful film clip and relaxation increases negative affect in response to the sad and fearful clip. Aditionally worry leads to more decrease in heart rate responding to the fearful film clip in GAD group (vs. normal). Worry may facilitate avoidance of processing negative emotions by a way of preventing a negative emotional contrast.