Abstract

The electrodermal response habituation rate (EDR-HR) is examined in relation to clinical, personality and electrodermal measures in patients with generalized anxiety, phobic, obsessive-compulsive, dysthymic and conversion disorders by means of a stepwise regression analysis procedure. The results in the entire sample suggest that EDR-HR depends on the phasic component (amplitude and spontaneous activity) of the electrodermal response as well as on state anxiety, extraversion and depersonalization. When tested separately, most of the diagnostic groups demonstrated main trends similar to those found in total patients. A noteworthy correspondence between the importance of the contribution of certain clinical symptoms to the EDR-HR variance and some long-standing views of psychopathology was also found during the separate analysis of the groups. Although these findings question the diagnostic specificity of EDR-HR, the importance of this index as an objective measure of change following a therapeutic intervention as well as its potential usefulness in high-risk studies of anxiety disorders is put forward.