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Forearm Blood Flow and Phobic Anxiety

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

M. G. Gelder  and
A. M. Mathews
M. G. Gelder
Affiliation:
The Bethlem Royal and Maudsley Hospitals, London, S.E.5
A. M. Mathews
Affiliation:
Institute of Psychiatry, Denmark Hill, London, S.E.5
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Extract

The measurement of muscle blood flow using occlusive plethysmography has recently been proposed as an objective index of anxiety (Harper et al., 1965; Kelly, 1966, 1967). Although the method has been used by physiologists for many years, and its sensitivity to psychological stress has often been mentioned as an incidental finding in physiological studies, its application in psychiatric or psychological research has been slow to develop, perhaps because rather cumbersome apparatus is required. However, promising results were reported by Kelly (1966), who differentiated patients suffering from anxiety states from mixed neurotic patients and normal controls, and who showed changes after leucotomy in anxious patients.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 114 , Issue 516 , November 1968 , pp. 1371 - 1376
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1968 

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