Hostname: page-component-cc8bf7c57-n7pht Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-12T01:49:02.111Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Forearm Blood Flow in Normal Subjects and Patients with Phobic Anxiety States

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

Max Harper ,
Clair Gurney ,
R. Douglass Savage  and
Martin Roth
Max Harper
Affiliation:
Powick Hospital, Worcester
Clair Gurney
Affiliation:
University of Newcastle upon Tyne
R. Douglass Savage
Affiliation:
University of Newcastle upon Tyne
Martin Roth
Affiliation:
University of Newcastle upon Tyne
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

One of the earliest studies on limb blood flow, using a volume plethysmograph to enclose the hand and forearm, was carried out by Hewlett and Van Zwaluwenburg (1909). Two of their patients were pronounced neurasthenics “with labile vasomotor systems” and these authors noted that, excluding subjects with thyrotoxicosis, “the majority of the remaining fast rates occurred in neurasthenics of the vasomotor type”. In 1938 Grant and Pearson, who developed forearm plethysmography to determine blood flow mainly in the skeletal muscle rather than the skin, noted transient increases in forearm flow with mental arithmetic in some subjects, but did not pursue this observation further. This response was studied in more detail by Abramson and Ferris (1940). Their conclusion that mental arithmetic produced an increase in forearm flow due to vasodilatation in the forearm muscles was confirmed by the work of Brod, Fencl, Hejl, and Jirka (1959), who attributed the change to emotional stress.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 111 , Issue 477 , August 1965 , pp. 723 - 731
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1965 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Ackner, B. (1956a). “Emotions and the peripheral vasomotor system.” J. psychosom. Res., 1, 3–20.Google Scholar
Ackner, B. (1956b). “The relationship between anxiety and the level of peripheral vasomotor activity: an experimental sutdy.” Ibid., 1, 21–48.Google Scholar
Abramson, D. I., Zazeela, H., and Marrus, J. (1939). “Plethysmography studies of peripheral blood flow in man: criteria for obtaining accurate plethysmographic data.” Am. Heart. J., 17, 194–205.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Abramson, D. I., Zazeela, H., and Ferris, E. B. (1940). “Responses of blood vessels in the resting hand and forearm to various stimuli.” Ibid., 19, 541–553.Google Scholar
Barcroft, H., Brod, J., Hejl, Z., Hirsjärvi, E. A., and Kitchin, A. H. (1960). “The mechanism of the vasodilatation in the forearm muscles during stress (mental arithmetic).” Clin. Sci., 19, 577–586.Google Scholar
Barcroft, H., Edholm, O. G., McMichael, J., and Sharpey-Schafer, E. P. (1944). “Post-haemorrhage fainting: a study by cardiac output and forearm flow.” Lancet, i, 489–490.Google Scholar
Barcroft, H., Edholm, O. G., McMichael, J., and Swan, H. J. C. (1953). Sympathetic Control of Human Blood Vessels. Monographs of the Physiological Society, No. 1. London: Edward Arnold and Co.Google Scholar
Brigden, W., Howarth, S., and Sharpey-Schafer, E. P. (1950). “Postural changes in the peripheral blood flow of normal subjects, with observations on vasovagal fainting reactions as a result of tilting, the lordotic posture, pregnancy and spinal anaesthesia.” Clin. Sci., 9, 79–91.Google Scholar
Brod, J., Fencl, V., Hejl, Z., and Jirka, J. (1959). “Circulatory changes underlying blood pressure elevation during acute emotional stress (mental arithmetic) in normotensive and hypertensive subjects.” Ibid., 18, 269–79.Google Scholar
Eysenck, H. J. (1959). “The differentiation between normal and various neurotic groups on the Maudsley Personality Inventory.” Brit. J. Psychol., 50, 176–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grant, R. T., and Pearson, R. S. B. (1938). “The blood circulation in the human limb; observations on the differences between the proximal and distal parts and remarks on the regulation of body temperature.” Clin. Sci., 3, 119–139.Google Scholar
Greenfield, A. D. M. (1951). “An emotional faint.” Lancet, i, 1302–1303.Google Scholar
Greenhouse, S. W., and Seymour, G. (1959). “On methods in the analysis of profile data.” Psychometrika, 24, 95–112.Google Scholar
Hellon, R. F., and Clarke, R. S. T. (1959). “Changes in forearm blood flow with age.” Clin Sci., 18, 1–7.Google Scholar
Hewlett, A. W., and Van Zwaluwenburo, J. G. (1909). “The rate of blood flow in the arm.” Heart Lond., 1, 87–97.Google Scholar
Lewis, T. (1932). “Vaso-vagal syncope and the carotid sinus mechanism.” Brit. med. J., 1, 873–876.Google Scholar
McNemar, Q. (1955). Psychological Statistics. 2nd Edn. New York: Wiley and Sons.Google Scholar
Pearson, E. S., and Hartley, H. O. (1950). Biometrika Tables for Statisticians. Vol. 1. London: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Roth, M. (1959). “The phobic anxiety-depersonalization syndrome.” Proc. R. Soc. Med., 52, 587–596.Google Scholar
Sharpey-Sghafer, E. P., Hayter, C. J., and Barlow, E. D. (1958). “Mechanism of acute hypotension from fear or nausea.” Brit. med. J., 1, 878–880.Google Scholar
Vanderhoof, E., and Clancy, J. (1962). “Peripheral blood flow as an indicator of emotional reaction.” J. appl. Physiol., 17, 67–70.Google Scholar
Whitney, R. J. (1953). “The measurement of volume changes in human limbs.” J. Physiol., 121, 1–27.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.