Sweat pore reactivity as a surrogate measure of sympathetic nervous system activity in trauma-exposed individuals with and without posttraumatic stress disorder

Stress analysis by FLIR (forward-looking infrared) evaluation (SAFE) has been demonstrated to monitor sweat pore activation (SPA) as a novel surrogate measure of sympathetic nervous system (SNS) activity in a normal population. SNS responses to a series of 15 1-s, 82 dB, white noise bursts were measured by skin conductance (SC) and SAFE monitoring of SPA on the fingers (FiP) and face (FaP) in 10 participants with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and 16 trauma-exposed participants without PTSD (M-age=48.92 +/- 12.00 years; 26.9% female). Within participants, SC and FiP responses across trials were strongly correlated (r=.92, p<.001). Correlations between SC and FaP (r=.76, p=.001) and between FiP and FaP (r=.47, p=.005) were smaller. The habituation of SNS responses across the 15 trials was substantial (SC: d=-2.97; FiP: d=-2.34; FaP: d=-1.02). There was a strong correlation between habituation effects for SC and FiP (r=.76, p<.001), but not for SC and FaP (r=.15, p=.45) or FiP and FaP (r=.29, p=.16). Participants with PTSD showed larger SNS responses to the first loud noise than those without PTSD. PTSD reexperiencing symptoms assessed by the PTSD Checklist on the day of testing were associated with the SNS responses to the first loud noise measured by SC (d=1.19) and FiP (d=.99), but not FaP (d=.10). This study confirms convergence of SAFE and SC as valid measures of SNS activity. SAFE FiP and SC responses were highly predictive of self-rated PTSD reexperiencing symptoms. SAFE may offer an attractive alternative for applications in PTSD and similar populations.