Mm. Antony et al., CARDIAC AWARENESS BEFORE AND AFTER COGNITIVE-BEHAVIORAL TREATMENT FORPANIC DISORDER, Journal of anxiety disorders, 8(4), 1994, pp. 341-350
Recent cognitive-behavioral theories of panic disorder (PD) suggest th
at PD patients experience heightened anxiety over, and hypervigilance
for, specific physical sensations. Researchers have recently begun to
examine whether PD patients evidence heightened interoceptive awarenes
s, relative to normals, with inconclusive results. The present study e
xamined changes in cardiac awareness in 15 PD patients following cogni
tive-behavioral treatment. Before and after treatment, cardiac awarene
ss was evaluated by having patients count heart beats during specified
intervals while actual heart rate was monitored. Despite significant
reductions in panic attacks and related symptomatology, cardiac awaren
ess did not change on average, although some individual subjects showe
d dramatic changes in either direction. As was the case with the entir
e sample, a subgroup of patients who showed the greatest reduction in
anxiety over panic sensations did not evidence significant changes in
heart beat awareness. The implications of these results are discussed.