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Effects of yohimbine and hydrocortisone on panic symptoms, autonomic responses, and attention to threat in healthy adults

Effects of yohimbine and hydrocortisone on panic symptoms, autonomic responses, and attention to threat in healthy adults
Effects of yohimbine and hydrocortisone on panic symptoms, autonomic responses, and attention to threat in healthy adults
Rationale: research in rodents and non-human primates implicates the noradrenergic system and hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis in stress, anxiety, and attention to threat. Few studies examine how these two neurochemical systems interact to influence anxiety and attention in humans.

Objective: the objective of this paper is to examine the effects of exogenous yohimbine and hydrocortisone, as well as their combination (Y?+?H), on panic symptoms and attention to social threat cues.

Methods: thirty-two healthy adults underwent a pharmacological challenge in which they were blindly randomized to either yohimbine, hydrocortisone, Y?+?H, or placebo. Thirty minutes after drug infusion, attention to threat was measured using the dot probe task, a visual attention task that presents angry, happy, and neutral faces and measures the degree of attention allocated towards or away from the emotional faces. Panic and autonomic measures were assessed before and 30 min after drug infusion.

Results: there was a significant increase in panic symptoms in the yohimbine and Y?+?H groups, but not in the hydrocortisone or placebo groups. Yohimbine resulted in a greater increase in panic symptoms than Y?+?H. On the dot probe task, the placebo group exhibited an attention bias to angry faces, whereas this bias was absent after yohimbine. When collapsing across groups, increased panic symptoms was associated with less attention to angry faces.

Conclusions: exogenous hydrocortisone may attenuate noradrenergic-induced panic symptoms. The inverse relationship between panic symptoms and attention to angry faces extends prior research demonstrating attention modulation by stressful conditions.
yohimbine, hydrocortisone, panic symptoms, attention, threat cues, adults
0033-3158
445-455
Vasa, Roma A.
117198b0-11b5-4c88-b1b5-afa8b6b28c94
Pine, Daniel S.
debffc1c-1efc-4bcf-81b3-87aadee1047d
Masten, Carrie L.
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Vythilingam, Meena
bef0ea5b-2d44-4bde-a7ba-ee1139721b0e
Collin, Carlos
d30a7c31-a75b-4591-a37b-028d2117e972
Charney, Dennis S.
b7ba83a7-13f8-49eb-9056-f2c83de72e14
Neumeister, Alexander
dd851810-25fb-4c8f-b584-e95029800e62
Mogg, Karin
5f1474af-85f5-4fd3-8eb6-0371be848e30
Bradley, Brendan P.
bdacaa6c-528b-4086-9448-27ebfe463514
Bruck, Maggie
c2272da0-719b-49b3-9348-84032e171b21
Monk, Christopher S.
ac508cb8-4ce2-4653-a746-be909af175a4
Vasa, Roma A.
117198b0-11b5-4c88-b1b5-afa8b6b28c94
Pine, Daniel S.
debffc1c-1efc-4bcf-81b3-87aadee1047d
Masten, Carrie L.
4fc4a8c3-6c69-45d5-9092-5f171d9ab551
Vythilingam, Meena
bef0ea5b-2d44-4bde-a7ba-ee1139721b0e
Collin, Carlos
d30a7c31-a75b-4591-a37b-028d2117e972
Charney, Dennis S.
b7ba83a7-13f8-49eb-9056-f2c83de72e14
Neumeister, Alexander
dd851810-25fb-4c8f-b584-e95029800e62
Mogg, Karin
5f1474af-85f5-4fd3-8eb6-0371be848e30
Bradley, Brendan P.
bdacaa6c-528b-4086-9448-27ebfe463514
Bruck, Maggie
c2272da0-719b-49b3-9348-84032e171b21
Monk, Christopher S.
ac508cb8-4ce2-4653-a746-be909af175a4

Vasa, Roma A., Pine, Daniel S., Masten, Carrie L., Vythilingam, Meena, Collin, Carlos, Charney, Dennis S., Neumeister, Alexander, Mogg, Karin, Bradley, Brendan P., Bruck, Maggie and Monk, Christopher S. (2009) Effects of yohimbine and hydrocortisone on panic symptoms, autonomic responses, and attention to threat in healthy adults. Psychopharmacology, 204 (3), 445-455. (doi:10.1007/s00213-009-1475-x).

Record type: Article

Abstract

Rationale: research in rodents and non-human primates implicates the noradrenergic system and hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis in stress, anxiety, and attention to threat. Few studies examine how these two neurochemical systems interact to influence anxiety and attention in humans.

Objective: the objective of this paper is to examine the effects of exogenous yohimbine and hydrocortisone, as well as their combination (Y?+?H), on panic symptoms and attention to social threat cues.

Methods: thirty-two healthy adults underwent a pharmacological challenge in which they were blindly randomized to either yohimbine, hydrocortisone, Y?+?H, or placebo. Thirty minutes after drug infusion, attention to threat was measured using the dot probe task, a visual attention task that presents angry, happy, and neutral faces and measures the degree of attention allocated towards or away from the emotional faces. Panic and autonomic measures were assessed before and 30 min after drug infusion.

Results: there was a significant increase in panic symptoms in the yohimbine and Y?+?H groups, but not in the hydrocortisone or placebo groups. Yohimbine resulted in a greater increase in panic symptoms than Y?+?H. On the dot probe task, the placebo group exhibited an attention bias to angry faces, whereas this bias was absent after yohimbine. When collapsing across groups, increased panic symptoms was associated with less attention to angry faces.

Conclusions: exogenous hydrocortisone may attenuate noradrenergic-induced panic symptoms. The inverse relationship between panic symptoms and attention to angry faces extends prior research demonstrating attention modulation by stressful conditions.

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Published date: June 2009
Keywords: yohimbine, hydrocortisone, panic symptoms, attention, threat cues, adults

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 145987
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/145987
ISSN: 0033-3158
PURE UUID: aec1d00b-737a-4309-a31a-ff334d8a7dad
ORCID for Brendan P. Bradley: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0003-2801-4271

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Date deposited: 20 Apr 2010 10:20
Last modified: 14 Mar 2024 02:45

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Contributors

Author: Roma A. Vasa
Author: Daniel S. Pine
Author: Carrie L. Masten
Author: Meena Vythilingam
Author: Carlos Collin
Author: Dennis S. Charney
Author: Alexander Neumeister
Author: Karin Mogg
Author: Maggie Bruck
Author: Christopher S. Monk

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