The effects of stress-anxiety and coping styles on heart rate variability.

This study explored the effects of a naturally occurring stressor on the amplitudes of the respiratory sinus arrhythmia and Traube-Hering-Mayer bands of the power spectra of cardiac interbeat intervals of 15 Highly Anxious, 15 Truly Low Anxious and 15 Repressor women. Interbeat interval samples were obtained from 4.5 min tachygraph records while the subjects sat quietly 2 weeks before (2W), the day before (DB) and 1 week following (WA) their oral comprehensive examinations. Subjects also reported their state anxiety on each occasion. Repeated measures ANOVA indicated that subjects' state anxiety was greater on the DB than on the other two occasions. Heart rates were faster for the DB than for the 2W and WA occasions. Truly Low Anxious women had slower heart rates, across all occasions, than did Repressors or Highly Anxious women. Although respiratory sinus arrhythmia amplitudes did not differ across occasions, RSA amplitudes were smaller for individuals with high trait anxiety (Repressors and Highly Anxious) than for subjects with low trait anxiety (Truly Low Anxious). Traube-Hering-Mayer amplitudes were smaller on the DB than the 2W or WA occasions for all subjects and were smaller for Repressors or Highly Anxious women than for Truly Low Anxious women across occasions.