Sensation seeking and affective disorders: Characteristics in the intensity dependence of acoustic evoked potentials

Augmenting/reducing of the evoked potential has been shown to be related to sensation seeking (SS) and specific clinical disorders. Buchsbaum demonstr ated that patients with bipolar affective disorders (BAD) tend to be augmen ters, as is the case with sensation seekers, and patients with unipolar aff ective disorders (UPD) tend to be reducers. In addition, he reported that p rophylactic medication reduced the tendency to augment in bipolar patients. However, evidence for these relations is restricted to a few studies. This study explores whether Buchsbaum's initial findings can be found in a natu ralistic clinical setting. Acoustic evoked potentials were recorded for six levels of intensity (59, 71,79, 88, 92, 96 dB SPL) from 24 healthy adults, 21 unipolar depressed patients, and 21 patients with BAD. Participants als o completed personality questionnaires, especially the Sensation Seeking Sc ales Form V. Results revealed a positive correlation between SS and augment ing/reducing in healthy controls, thereby replicating earlier findings. Bip olar depressed patients showed larger P1/N1 slopes than healthy controls, w hen medication was statistically controlled. Unipolar depressed patients sh owed smaller P2 slopes, but only when medication was not controlled. Implic ations of these results for further research on augmenting/reducing and aff ective disorders and their relationship to SS are discussed. Copyright 2000 S. Karger AG, Baser.