Blaine Ditto's research while affiliated with McGill University and other places
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Publications (131)
Prior investigations have examined risk factors associated to postpartum depression in immigrant women, but depression during pregnancy has received less attention. This study describes the prevalence and early determinants of antenatal depression among recent (≤ 5 years) and long-term immigrants (> 5 years), compared to Canadian-born women. 503 wo...
Background
Vasovagal reactions (VVRs) are commonly experienced in medical situations such as blood donation. Many believe that psychosocial contagion can contribute to the development of VVRs, but this is largely clinical lore.
Purpose
The goal of the present investigation was to examine the physiological effects of observing another experience a...
Background:
Research has revealed group-level differences in maternal blood pressure trajectories across pregnancy. These trajectories are typically constructed using clinical blood pressure data and multivariate statistical methods that are prone to bias and ignore the functional, dynamic process underlying a single blood pressure observation. Th...
Background and objectives
The blood donation environment includes a variety of disgust‐related stimuli that may influence attitudes among new and prospective donors. To explore the causal role of disgust in the context of attitudes toward blood donation, we experimentally induced feelings of disgust (vs. fear, moral elevation, or control). We hypot...
Introduction: Research on mindfulness has extended to the prevention of psychopathology and physical conditions during pregnancy. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between trait mindfulness assessed in the first or early second trimester to health outcomes throughout pregnancy.
Methods: A total of 510 women were recruite...
Objective:
Most of the research on vasovagal reactions has focused on the contributions of cardiovascular activity to the development of symptoms. However, other research suggests that additional mechanisms like hyperventilation may contribute to the process. The goal of the present investigation was to examine the influences of cardiovascular and...
Background:
Blood donor recruitment remains an important worldwide challenge due to changes in population demographics and shifts in the demand for blood. Various cognitive models help predict donation intention, although the importance of affective deterrents has become increasingly evident. This study aimed to identify fears that predict donatio...
Background:
Exclusive breastfeeding is recommended for the first 6 months of life and has significant benefits for both mother and child. Pregnancy-specific anxiety is a distinct and definable syndrome that has been identified as a robust predictor of pregnancy outcomes, but whether it is associated with exclusive breastfeeding status has not been...
Objective:
To investigate whether symptoms of depression or state anxiety changed the strength or nature of the association between hypertensive disorders of pregnancy (HDP) and gestational age at birth.
Methods:
We conducted a secondary analysis of data from the All Our Families Cohort, a prospective pregnancy cohort study based in Calgary, Alb...
Objective:
Depression is associated with autonomic and immune dysregulation, yet this remains poorly explored in asthma. We assessed associations between depressive disorder, lung function, and inflammatory markers in patients under investigation for occupational asthma (OA).
Methods:
One hundred twelve patients under investigation for OA (60% m...
BACKGROUND
Whether produced by breathing too fast or too deeply, hyperventilation is common in stressful situations and may contribute to blood donation–related vasovagal symptoms. The effects of some previously tested interventions for vasovagal symptoms, for example, applied tension (AT), may be related to reduction of hyperventilation. More targ...
Background
Little is known about the role of physiological stress responses in metabolic syndrome (MetS).
Purpose
To examine whether patterns of autonomic response to psychological stress are associated with MetS and whether this association is moderated by sex
Methods
1121 men and women (Mage = 65.3 ± 6.77 years) with and without coronary artery...
Purpose:
Physical inactivity, smoking, and excessive alcohol use are well-recognized modifiable risk factors for cardiovascular disease (CVD), yet uptake of strategies to mitigate these poor health behaviors varies widely among patients with cardiovascular disease. Part of this variation may be explained by health locus of control (HLOC), defined...
Background: The experience of a vasovagal reaction during blood donation, with symptoms such as dizziness, weakness, and fainting, contributes to a more negative donation experience and significantly decreases the likelihood of blood donor return. This study investigates the effects of two behavioural interventions on reducing the occurrence of suc...
Vasovagal reactions are conventionally understood as resulting from systemic changes in cardiovascular activity; however, there exists a complementary perspective focused on specific changes in cerebral vasoconstriction associated with hyperventilation-induced hypocapnia. The present study investigated the role of cardiovascular and respiratory act...
Vasovagal reactions are conventionally understood as resulting from systemic changes in cardiovascular activity; however, there exists a complementary perspective focused on specific changes in cerebral vasoconstriction associated with hyperventilation-induced hypocapnia. The present study investigated the role of cardiovascular and respiratory act...
While pain can increase sympathetic nervous system activity and blood pressure, an increase in blood pressure can decrease pain. This “blood pressure-related hypoalgesia” is less well understood than the direct impact of pain on blood pressure but plays an important role in the regulation of pain and emotion. Both acute and sustained elevations of...
Background and objectives:
The vasovagal response demonstrates a unique form of stress response, common in medical settings yet provoked by a variety of blood-injury-injection stimuli. This study aimed to better understand the psychophysiological mechanisms of the vasovagal response..
Methods:
16 undergraduates with and 42 without a self-reporte...
While pain can increase sympathetic nervous system activity and blood pressure, an increase in blood pressure can decrease pain. This "blood pressure-related hypoalgesia" is less well understood than the direct impact of pain on blood pressure but plays an important role in the regulation of pain and emotion. Both acute and sustained elevations of...
Background:
Recruiting new donors is a challenging experience for most blood collection agencies. A modest proportion of the population is eligible to give blood and few of these individuals volunteer. The goal of this study was to examine the effects of brief behavioral interventions on nondonors' intention to give blood, by addressing some commo...
To create a gender index by using principal component analyses (PCA) and logistic regression, and to determine the association between gender, sex, and cardiovascular risk factors among patients with premature acute coronary syndrome (ACS).
GENESIS-PRAXY is a cohort study including ACS patients aged 55 years or below, and with ACS recruited between...
The vasovagal response (VVR) is a common medical problem, complicating and deterring people from various procedures. It is an unusual stress response given the widespread decreases in physiological activity. Nevertheless, VVR involves processes similar to those observed during episodes of strong emotions and pain. We hypothesized that heightened pe...
This study examined autonomic and hemodynamic processes associated with the development of naturally occurring vasovagal responses. Data from a study assessing the physiological correlates of an intervention to reduce vasovagal responses in blood donors were examined (Ditto et al., 2009). Ninety-eight participants were assigned randomly to groups t...
The association between anxiety, depression, and endothelial function (EF) was assessed in a sample of 295 cardiac outpatients (n = 222 men; mean age = 59). Patients were administered the Beck Depression Inventory-II and the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, trait scale. EF was assessed through forearm hyperemic reactivity, a nuclear medicine variatio...
Little empirical evidence exists on the comparability of heart rate variability (HRV) quantification methods commonly used in infants. The aim was to compare three methods of HRV estimation: (1) fast Fourier transform (FFT), (2) autoregressive (AR), and (3) the Porges methods. HRV was estimated in 63 healthy 5-month-old infants. HRV parameters were...
Objective:
Observing or hearing about illness in another person can lead to reports of similar symptoms. Reports can occasionally be widespread. However, it has been difficult to document whether this is the result of genuine illness or the expression of anxiety with physical terminology. This study examined the effects of being able to see anothe...
Background and objectives:
Repeated isometric muscle tension (applied tension) during blood donation reduces vasovagal symptoms in many donors. Experiencing vasovagal symptoms has been found to reduce blood donor return. However, does practicing applied tension improve blood donor return? Follow-up results from a randomized controlled trial are pr...
Background:
The experience of low socioeconomic position in childhood may increase risk for adult cardiovascular disease above and beyond the effects of current socioeconomic position. One limitation of most previous research is that childhood socioeconomic position was assessed retrospectively.
Methods:
Measures of ambulatory blood pressure, he...
Efforts to expand the donor pool by recruiting younger donors have resulted in higher numbers of initial donations, but retention of young donors continues to be challenging.
Path analysis was used to examine the simultaneous relationships among syncopal reactions, donation anxiety, needle pain, donor satisfaction, and donation intention in predict...
Among cardiac patients, research suggests that somatic depressive symptoms are more strongly associated with altered cardiovascular responses to stress than cognitive depressive symptoms. This study sought to determine whether this was also the case in healthy individuals. One hundred and ninety-nine adults from the community completed the Beck Dep...
Despite the ongoing need for blood donation, few people give blood. A common reason is concern about vasovagal symptoms.
The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of applied tension in reducing vasovagal symptoms during blood donation and the mechanisms of action.
Two hundred eighty-two young adult blood donors were randomly assigned...
Vasovagal reactions (VVR) are common, complicating and deterring people from various medical procedures. A recent perspective (R. R. Diehl, ) suggests that VVR developed from the adaptive process of hemorrhagic fainting, perhaps as a means of preparing for anticipated blood loss. The primary goal of this study was to compare vasovagal symptoms duri...
Background. The effects of smoking, alcohol consumption, obesity, and a sedentary lifestyle on endothelial function (EF) have only been examined separately. The relative contributions of these behaviours on EF have therefore not been compared. Purpose. To compare the relative associations between these four risk factors and brachial artery reactivi...
Unlabelled:
INTRODUCTION/RESULTS: This study examined whether a belief of significant blood loss may be associated with vasovagal symptoms, irrespective of actual blood loss. Individual differences in vasovagal symptoms among blood donors who had an equivalent amount of blood withdrawn were significantly associated with their rating of perceived b...
Major depressive disorder (MDD) is associated with increased cardiovascular (CV) mortality. Dysfunctional autonomic control of the CV system may represent a mechanism explaining this relationship. Poor CV recovery after exercise, indicative of dysfunctional autonomic control of the CV system, predicts CV events and death. This is the first study to...
A recent theory proposes that emotional fainting developed from an earlier adaptive characteristic, fainting in response to hemorrhage. Despite potential loss of consciousness, a dramatic decrease in blood pressure improves chances of survival in animals with severe wounds by reducing blood loss and facilitating clotting. Humans may have developed...
Psychological stress causes dopamine release in the striatum and is thought to play a role in susceptibility to psychotic illness. Previous work suggests that an elevated dopaminergic response to stress may index vulnerability to psychosis in certain individuals. With functional magnetic resonance imaging, we measured stress-induced changes in brai...
Despite being a voluntary activity, many blood donors experience anxiety, and fainting (syncope) is not unusual. The muscle-tensing technique applied tension (AT) has been found to be effective in reducing vasovagal symptoms and syncope. A series of studies was developed to investigate the role of AT on anxiety and fainting.
The mechanisms of AT we...
A randomized controlled trial was conducted to test the effects of hydration and applied muscle tensing on presyncopal reactions to blood donation. Both interventions are designed to prevent the decreases in blood pressure that can contribute to such reactions, but due to the distinct physiologic mechanisms underlying their pressor responses it was...
Vasovagal symptoms can discourage people who might otherwise give blood on many occasions. However, the effects of symptoms on donor retention as well as the effects of treatments to reduce vasovagal symptoms on donor retention are probably moderated by a person's confidence that they can tolerate the procedure.
Data from a study on the effects of...
Sustained and acute increases in blood pressure can dampen pain in experimental animals and humans. The most important clinical implication of this relationship may be the phenomenon of silent cardiac ischemia. High blood pressure is common in people at risk for cardiac ischemia and may reduce angina, the key symptom of life-threatening ischemia. T...
Applied tension (AT) is a behavioral technique used to reduce symptoms such as dizziness and fainting in people with blood and injury phobias as well as medical patients undergoing invasive procedures. AT has been found to reduce dizziness and fainting in several studies of blood donors.
The purpose of this study was to examine the psychophysiologi...
Cardiopulmonary baroreceptor stimulation may modulate pain, though the literature is much smaller than research showing that sinoaortic baroreceptor stimulation can buffer pain. To examine the possibility that risk for established high blood pressure may moderate the effects of cardiopulmonary baroreceptor stimulation on pain, 22 borderline hyperte...
Blood donation-related symptoms such as dizziness and fainting are unpleasant for the donor and a significant disincentive for repeat donation. The muscle tensing technique of applied muscle tension reduced symptoms in several studies.
Follow-up data from a randomized controlled trial of different components of applied tension were obtained. The nu...
Presyncopal reactions are among the most common systemic reactions experienced by blood donors, occur most frequently in novice donors, and can serve as a deterrent to future donation regardless of donation experience. This report describes the validation of a presyncopal reactions scale that can be used to standardize assessment of the donor's sub...
There is growing evidence linking psychological stress to atopic disease, particularly asthma. Anxiety sensitivity, which is the fear of anxiety-related symptoms, may be particularly important in the study of anxiety and atopic disease. The present study examined the association between atopy and anxiety sensitivity in adult asthmatics. A total of...
To examine the prognostic significance of early socioeconomic status (SES) on 24-hour blood pressure (BP) during early adulthood. Low SES has been related to poor health outcomes, in particular, cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. Recent cross-sectional research has also linked low levels of SES with several cardiovascular risk factors includin...
Increased blood pressure and sweet taste are often associated with decreased pain sensitivity. Animal research suggests that endogenous opioids are involved in both these relationships. Fifty-eight healthy young adults (36 male, 22 female) participated in two sessions receiving a placebo tablet or 50mg of naltrexone on counterbalanced days. On each...
An unhealthy lifestyle, including excess caloric intake, lack of exercise, smoking, and excessive alcohol consumption, increases one's risk of developing cardiovascular disease (CVD). However, the exact mechanisms by which these behaviors influence the development and progression of CVD have yet to be determined. Endothelial function (EF) has been...
Blood donation-related symptoms such as dizziness, nausea, and fainting are unpleasant for the donor and a significant disincentive for repeat donation. The muscle tensing technique of applied tension (AT) reduced symptoms in several studies.
This study was a randomized controlled trial of different components of AT. A total of 1209 donors were ran...
Increasing blood donor recruitment and retention is of key importance to transfusion services. Research within the social and behavioral science traditions has adopted separate but complementary approaches to addressing these issues. This article aims to review both of these types of literature, examine theoretical developments, identify commonalit...
Acute and chronic increases in blood pressure have been related to decreases in pain perception. This phenomenon has been studied primarily using acute experimental pain stimuli. To extend the literature to naturalistic pain and in particular the problem of silent cardiac ischemia, this study examined the relationship between blood pressure and che...
Recent research suggests that the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction program has positive effects on health, but little is known about the immediate physiological effects of different components of the program.
To examine the short-term autonomic and cardiovascular effects of one of the techniques employed in mindfulness meditation training, a basi...
Emotional stress has been considered an important asthma trigger for years, though the mechanisms by which stress may exacerbate asthma remain poorly understood. The stress-asthma morbidity association could occur through cognitive-behavioral pathways, such as decreased asthma self-efficacy and disorganized self-care, or through the more direct phy...
Silent myocardial ischaemia is a common phenomenon in patients with coronary heart disease. However, very little is known about the underlying mechanisms of silent ischaemia. One potential pathway that may contribute to this absence of pain is increased blood pressure. The main aim of the current study was to assess the associations among blood pre...
The high burden of asthma appears to be related to poor asthma control. Although previous studies have reported associations between depressive disorders (DDs) and anxiety disorders (ADs) and worse asthma control and quality of life, the relative impact of these disorders on asthma control and quality of life has not been explored. This study evalu...
Individuals with established hypertension have been found to display deficits in a number of neuropsychological abilities. In general, these are probably due to structural changes in the brain produced by sustained high blood pressure. However, a potentially important line of research suggests that some of these deficits may extend to younger indiv...
Although not universal, a certain amount of predonation anxiety is common and not surprising among inexperienced blood donors. Variations in predonation anxiety, however, may influence the donor's experience in several respects and might be related to the likelihood of subsequent donation even among those who do not report particularly high levels...
Blood-donation-related symptoms such as dizziness and weakness discourage people from participating in this important health-related activity. Four hundred sixty-seven young adult, French-speaking blood donors were randomly assigned to (a) a condition in which they learned a possible preventive technique called applied tension and were asked to pra...
Asthma and obesity tend to co-occur, but relatively few studies have linked obesity, measured using body mass index (BMI), to clinically relevant measures of asthma morbidity. This study assessed BMI in a Canadian sample of asthma outpatients, and evaluated associations between BMI and levels of asthma severity, asthma control, and asthma-related q...
Achieving good asthma control has become the major goal of asthma treatment. Studies have reported a high rate of psychiatric disorders among asthma patients, though the impact of these disorders on asthma control and quality of life remains unexplored. This study evaluated the prevalence of psychiatric disorders in 406 adult asthma patients, and a...
The impact of stress on respiratory airflow in asthmatics is unclear. Part of the uncertainty may spring from the different physiological effects of different stressors. Given their potential to elicit increases in parasympathetic vagal activity, stressful situations that present few opportunities for coping (passive coping stressors) may be partic...
With blood donation serving as a naturalistic stressor and a controlled medical event, the aim of this study was to examine emotional and cardiovascular reactivity, self-report of vasovagal symptoms, and perceived pain as a function of scores on the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20).
Healthy young adult blood donors (N = 610) recruited at mobile b...
A growing body of evidence suggests that episodes of fainting can deter volunteer blood donors from returning to donate in the future. In contrast, relatively little is known about the effect of significantly more common mild reactions (e.g., faintness, dizziness, lightheadedness) on donor retention. In the present study, 1052 volunteer blood donor...
Deficient parasympathetic activity to the heart has been hypothesized to underlie some forms of cardiovascular disease. Consequently, this experiment attempted to induce non-respiratory mediated increases in cardiac parasympathetic activity. Thirty-nine subjects were asked to increase their vagal tone using biofeedback, paced breathing, biofeedback...
The familiality of infant sleeping heart rate (HR) and cardiac-related autonomic activity, as indexed by spectral analysis of HR variability (HRV) and response to postural change, was investigated in 322 5-month-old twin pairs. The postural change elicited only minor changes in cardiovascular activity. As a result, analyses focused on supine cardio...
To test the prediction that sweet taste modifies responses to cold induced pain, 72 young adults held sweet, bitter and water solutions in their mouths, in counterbalanced order, before and during a cold pain stimulus. To test whether or not blood pressure interacts with sweet taste analgesia, measurements of resting blood pressure were also obtain...
Unpleasant blood donation-related symptoms may discourage otherwise healthy, altruistic individuals from becoming repeat donors. This study examined a behavioral technique called applied muscle tension (AMT) that might reduce reactions.
A total of 605 donors at mobile clinics were assigned to either an AMT treatment condition, a no-treatment contro...
This study assessed the prevalence, level of disclosure, and interpretations of sexual activities in a sample of 123 college-aged blood donors in Montreal, Quebec. Within six months of their donation, participants completed an anonymous questionnaire designed to assess sexual definitions, levels of disclosure to sexual partners, as well as prevalen...
Low pain sensitivity has been reported in hypertensive subjects as well in groups deemed to be at increased risk of development of the disorder. However, it is uncertain whether individual differences in pain sensitivity are associated prospectively with increases in blood pressure. In the current study, 24-hour blood pressure and heart rate variab...
Electromyographic (EMG) recording during presentation of loud sounds revealed central motor inhibition in a rare case of conversion disorder with deafness. Two subjects in whom hypnotic deafness was induced resembled the patient. In contrast, patients with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) showed a significantly delayed return of EMG to baseline,...
Vasovagal reactions significantly complicate the blood collection process and, more importantly, discourage people who might otherwise donate blood many times from returning. Applied muscle tension is a simple behavioral technique that may reduce vasovagal reactions by maintaining blood pressure. It has been successfully used to treat patients with...
A growing literature has observed a significant reduction in pain sensitivity among hypertensive animals and humans. It is uncertain whether a reduced sensitivity to pain can be observed in nonnotensive individuals who go on to develop high blood pressure. Blood pressure (BP) was reassessed in one hundred fifteen 19-year-old boys initially tested a...
A growing literature has observed a significant reduction in pain sensitivity among hypertensive animals and humans. It is uncertain whether a reduced sensitivity to pain can be observed in normotensive individuals who go on to develop high blood pressure. Blood pressure (BP) was reassessed in one hundred fifteen 19-year-old boys initially tested a...
Reduced pain perception has been observed in hypertensive individuals and normotensive individuals at risk for high blood pressure and may involve increased endogenous opioid release or receptor sensitivity. The present study examined the issue by administering two subjectively similar but physiologically different forms of the pain-reducing proced...
CARDIOVASCULAR REACTIVITY AND SYMPTOM REPORTING DURING BLOOD DONATION IN ALEXITHYMIA
Nelson J. Byrne, Blaine Ditto, Marios Roussos, Department of Psychology, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada
With blood donation serving as a naturalistic stressor, the aim of this study was to examine physiological and emotional reactivity, self-report of va...
Psychological factors have long been implicated in the development of hypertension. Most studies exploring this relationship employed questionnaires administered on only one occasion.
to evaluate the relation between blood pressure and social behavior in the natural environment over an extended period of time.
40 healthy young adult women at varyin...
ALEXITHYMIA AND CARDIOVASCULAR REACTIVITY TO THE ANTICIPATION OF BLOOD DONATION
Nelson J. Byrne, Erin Putterman, Blaine Ditto, Department of Psychology, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada
While alexithymia is characterized by a deficit in the cognitive processing of emotion, recent data also suggest the presence of abnormal patterns of autono...
Results from both experimental animals and humans suggest that baroreflex stimulation may be involved in blood pressure-related hypoalgesia. However, most of this research, especially in the area of human experimentation, has focused on sinoaortic baroreceptors. Cardiopulmonary baroreflex stimulation may also be an important moderator of pain. Sixt...