Influence of specific emotional states on autonomic reactivity and pulmonary function in asthmatic children

Objective: Research relating depression/hopelessness to cholinergic activation suggests the hypothesis that sad emotional states evoke patterns of autonomic reactivity that predispose to cholinergically mediated airway constriction in asthma. A corollary hypothesis is that positive (e.g., happy) emotional states evoke opposing effects. The purpose of the current study is to assess whether specific emotional states {sadness and happiness) can be reliably induced, physiologically differentiated, and related to asthma- relevant physiologic (autonomic) reactivity and pulmonary function in asthmatic children. Method: Twenty-four children, aged 8 to 17 years, with moderate to severe asthma, viewed the movie E.T., The Extra-Terrestrial while having their heart and respiration rate and oxygen saturation continuously recorded. Specific scenes were identified and preselected to evoke sadness, happiness, and a mixture of happiness and sadness. Self-report of emotion and indices of physiologic response were analyzed for these targeted scenes. Results: Sadness was associated with greater heart rate variability and instability of oxygen saturation compared with happiness, with mixed results for mixed happiness and sadness. Conclusion: Results support sadness as evoking patterns of autonomic influence consistent with cholinergically mediated airway constriction. Happiness appears to effect autonomic patterns that would tend to relieve airway constriction.