Biomedical subjects

T Peri

Publications and source records attributed to T Peri.

21 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

PubMedDate not supplied

Auditory startle response during exposure to war stress.

This report describes the immediate effect of war stress on physiological measures of the auditory startle responses (ASRs). Ten healthy Israeli subjects were examined 4 months before the Gulf war, during a missile alert on the first day of the war, and 8 months after the war. The magnitude and rate of habituation of orbicularis oculi electromyogram (EMG), heart rate (HR), and skin conductance (SC) responses to 15 consecutive presentations of 95-dB, 0-rise time, 1,000-Hz pure tones were recorded on each occasion, along with self-reports of anxiety. The group's anxiety scores were significantly higher during the war. ASRs, in contrast, remained stable across exposure conditions. However, a decrease in SC habituation was observed in few individuals during the war, and may illustrate a distinctive vulnerability to stress. The results are discussed in light of recent findings of abnormal startle response in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Acoustic Stimulation↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Psychophysiologic assessment of mental imagery of stressful events in Israeli civilian posttraumatic stress disorder patients.

This study explored the physiological responses of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) patients to reminders of a stressful event that had preceded the onset of their illness and was not related to its cause: the SCUD missile alarms of the Gulf War. A mental-imagery technique used in previous studies of PTSD was used. Three 30-second audiotapes were presented to each subject, including (1) the Gulf War's missile alarm, (2) a radio announcement of a terrorist attack, and (3) a standardized relaxing scene. Subjects were instructed to imagine each event as vividly as possible while heart rate (HR), skin conductance (SC), and left lateral frontalis electromyogram (EMG) responses were measured. The responses of 12 outpatients with PTSD were compared with those of panic disorder patients (n = 11), survivors of traumatic events who had not developed PTSD (n = 9), and mentally healthy subjects with no lifetime history of major trauma (n = 19). Multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) for the three physiological measures showed a significant group difference during imagery of the Gulf War alarm, with PTSD subjects showing higher SC and EMG responses than the others. The differences remained significant when age, level of distress during the war, and concurrent anxiety were controlled for. There were no group differences in responses to the other stimuli. We conclude that, PTSD patients may either acquire and maintain prolonged conditioned responses to various stressors during their life span or become sensitized to reminders of past traumata following the onset of their illness. Heightened conditionability may be expressed before the trauma in subjects who are liable to develop PTSD.

Adult↗

PubMedDate not supplied

The efficacy of amitriptyline and acetaminophen in the management of acute low back pain.

Thirty-nine patients with acute low back pain were treated with amitriptyline (150 mg/d) or acetaminophen (2,000 mg/d) in a controlled double-blind design for 5 weeks. Both groups revealed mild depression, normal coping, and increased anxiety at the beginning, with significant improvement in anxiety state and pain at the end of treatment. A repeated measures analysis of variance demonstrated that amitriptyline was more effective than acetaminophen in reducing pain intensity from the second week of treatment. Age and depression were the only significant pretreatment predictors of posttreatment pain. The study evaluates the significance of these findings.

Acetaminophen↗