Original Research Article
Year: 2020 | Month: April-June | Volume: 5 | Issue: 2 | Pages: 89-93
Comparative Study of Basal Galvanic Skin Response (GSR) and GSR during Head Up Tilt (HUT) Testing in Male Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD) Patients
Jai Kumar1, Deepti Aggarwal2, CMS Rawat3, Vimal Singh Gusain4
1Associate Professor, 4Professor,
Department of Physiology, VCSG Government Institute of Medical Sciences & Research, Srinagar (Garhwal), Uttarakhand – 246174
2Senior Resident, Department of Physiology, PGIMS, Pt. B. D. Sharma University of Health Sciences, Rohtak, Haryana – 124001
3Professor, Department of Community Medicine, VCSG Government Institute of Medical Sciences & Research, Srinagar (Garhwal), Uttarakhand – 246174
Corresponding Author: Vimal Singh Gusain
ABSTRACT
Background: Generalised anxiety disorder is one of the debilitating mental health problem all over the world. And association of generalised anxiety disorder with cardiovascular morbidity is a well known fact. There are invasive and non invasive methods of autonomic cardiac function tests. Out of these galvanic skin response and postural challenge test in the form of head up tilt testing are two noninvasive methods.
Objective: We did this study to detect the early changes in autonomic activity among generalised anxiety disorder patients.
Methodology: The study was carried out on 30 patients of Generalised Anxiety Disorder of 18-45 years of age of male gender. The subjects and patients were divided into the following two groups: group I of thirty normal healthy subjects and group II of thirty male generalised anxiety disorder patients diagnosed as per ICD-10 guidelines with Hamilton Anxiety Scale score of 28 (i.e. moderate anxiety).
Results: The galvanic skin response was reduced among generalised anxiety disorder patients at basal level as well as upon head up tilt testing as compared to the normal healthy subjects. The decrease in galvanic skin response pointed towards the increased sympathetic activity among the generalised anxiety disorder patients though the result was statistically not significant.
Conclusion: Our study showed the decreased basal galvanic skin response and on head up tilt testing but the result was not statistically significant. We concluded that galvanic skin response alone can not be used as a reliable tool for early detection of autonomic imbalance among generalised anxiety disorder patients.
Keywords: GAD (Generalised Anxiety Disorder), GSR (Galvanic Skin Response), HUT(Head Up Tilt), Autonomic Nervous System, Cardiovascular morbidity