Forearm Blood Flow and Phobic Anxiety

Abstract

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.