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Information processing in anxiety: a pilot study of the effect of manipulating 5-HT function

Oxford Learning Disability NHS Trust, Slade House, Horspath Driftway, Headington, Oxford OX3 7JH

I.M. Anderson

University of Manchester Department of Psychiatry, Rawnsley Building, Manchester Royal Infirmary, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9WL, UK

We gave the indirect 5-HT agonist, D-fenfluramine (30 mg), the 5-HT antagonist methysergide (2 mg) and placebo to 11 patients with an anxiety disorder and 12 controls in a double-blind, balanced-order, cross-over design. Compared to controls, patients had significantly higher anxiety ratings, were slower in naming colours in computerized Stroop tests and showed greater interference for anxiety-related words. Patients tended to have a lower critical flicker fusion threshold (CFFT) than controls and in the subjects taken as a whole there was a significant inverse correlation between CFFT and Spielberger state (r=—0.54, p<0.01) and trait anxiety (r= - 0.55, p<0.01). Neither drug had significant effects on anxiety ratings or on Stroop interference. D- Fenfluramine significantly increased CFFT (p < 0.02) and methysergide non-significantly reduced CFFT with no significant differences between patients and controls. 5-HT may be involved in lower-level visual information processing but we found no evidence for its direct involvement in the attentional bias for anxiety- related information in the emotional Stroop.

Key Words: anxiety disorders • critical flicker fusion • D-fenfluramine • 5-HT • information processing; methysergide • Stroop

Journal of Psychopharmacology, Vol. 12, No. 2, 155-160 (1998)
DOI: 10.1177/026988119801200207


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