Critchley, Hugo, Sherrill, Samantha, Ewing, Donna, Gould van Praag, Cassandra, Habash-Bailey, Haniah, Quadt, Lisa, Eccles, Jessica, Meeten, Fran, Jones, Anna-Marie and Garfinkel, Sarah (2023) Cardiac interoception in patients accessing secondary mental health services: a transdiagnostic study. Autonomic Neuroscience: Basic and Clinical, 245. pp. 1-15. ISSN 1566-0702

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Abstract

Background
Abnormalities in the regulation of physiological arousal and interoceptive processing are implicated in the expression and maintenance of specific psychiatric conditions and symptoms. We undertook a cross-sectional characterisation of patients accessing secondary mental health services, recording measures relating to cardiac physiology and interoception, to understand how physiological state and interoceptive ability relate transdiagnostically to affective symptoms.

Methods
Participants were patients (n = 258) and a non-clinical comparison group (n = 67). Clinical diagnoses spanned affective disorders, complex personality presentations and psychoses. We first tested for differences between patient and non-clinical participants in terms of cardiac physiology and interoceptive ability, considering interoceptive tasks and a self-report measure. We then tested for correlations between cardiac and interoceptive measures and affective symptoms. Lastly, we explored group differences across recorded clinical diagnoses.

Results
Patients exhibited lower performance accuracy and confidence in heartbeat discrimination and lower heartbeat tracking confidence relative to comparisons. In patients, greater anxiety and depression predicted greater self-reported interoceptive sensibility and a greater mismatch between performance accuracy and sensibility. This effect was not observed in comparison participants. Significant differences between patient groups were observed for heart rate variability (HRV) although post hoc differences were not significant after correction for multiple comparisons. Finally, accuracy in heartbeat tracking was significantly lower in schizophrenia compared to other diagnostic groups.

Conclusions
The multilevel characterisation presented here identified certain physiological and interoceptive differences associated with psychiatric symptoms and diagnoses. The clinical stratification and therapeutic targeting of interoceptive mechanisms is therefore of potential value in treating certain psychiatric conditions.

Item Type:	Article
Schools and Departments:	Brighton and Sussex Medical School > Neuroscience
SWORD Depositor:	Mx Elements Account
Depositing User:	Mx Elements Account
Date Deposited:	16 Jan 2023 10:49
Last Modified:	22 Feb 2023 16:00
URI:	http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/110128

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