Peripheral blood flow as an indicator of emotional reaction

¹ Departments of Physiology and Psychiatry, State University of Iowa, College of Medicine, Iowa City, Iowa

In order to study the effects of emotional stress on peripheral blood flow, subjects were exposed to a variety of stresses while blood flow was measured plethysmographically. Stressful situations included abreaction of some previously experienced traumatic event and exposure to new stresses in both the awake and hypnotic states. During recall of traumatic experiences under hypnosis the change in mean blood flow was an increase over control flow for all subjects. Initially subjects responded to new stresses with an increase in blood flow but repetition of the stress extinguished the response. An interpretation of these results in terms of personality functioning is discussed. Blood flow, as measured by venous occlusion plethysmography, seems to be a sensitive indicator of emotional reactivity and may have considerable usefulness in clinical investigation of psychiatric patients.