Der „Experiences in Close Relationships – Revised” (ECR-R) ist ein gut entwickelter und international verbreiteter Fragebogen zur Erfassung von Bindung. Die deutschsprachige Version (ECR-RD) wurde in einer großen nicht klinischen (n = 1006) und einer psychosomatisch-psychotherapeutischen Stichprobe (n = 225) evaluiert. Die guten psychometrischen Eigenschaften konnten bestätigt werden (Cronbach's α = 0,91/0,92), ebenso gab es Hinweise auf Konstruktvalidität. Die klinische und nicht klinische Stichprobe unterschieden sich im ECR-RD voneinander, ebenso wurde ein besonderer Einfluss von Persönlichkeitsstörungen festgestellt. Der ECR-RD ist damit ein international vergleichbares Instrument zur Erfassung von partnerschaftsbezogener Bindung, welches sich für den Einsatz gerade in psychosomatisch-psychotherapeutischen Stichproben bewährt hat. The „Experiences in Close Relationships – Revised” (ECR-R) is a well developed instrument for assessing attachment in adults, which is used in different research areas around the world. In this paper the German version (ECR-RD) was evaluated in a large non-clinical (N = 1006) and a clinical sample (N = 225). Overall, the good psychometrical properties were confirmed (Cronbach's α = 0,91/0,92), we also found evidence for construct validity. There was a substantial difference between the two samples in the ECR-RD as well as a specific impact of comorbid personality disorders. The ECR-RD can be seen as a reliable, internationally comparable instrument for assessing romantic attachment representations that can be used in clinical samples.

Objectives. Despite its clinical importance and relevance for health care policy, the pathways between depression and stress regulation remain poorly understood. The objective of our study was to compare cardiovascular and autonomic responses to brief psychosocial stress in a group of severely depressed subjects without heart disease and a non-depressed control-group. Methods. We recorded cardiovascular and autonomic reactions to two different stress tasks including anger recall and mental arithmetic in a sample of 25 severely depressed and 25 non-depressed subjects. Aggregated data were compared with repeated-measures MANOVA. We used contrasts to evaluate different response patterns concerning cardiovascular and autonomic reactivity vs. recovery. Results. Depressed subjects showed overall reduced high-frequency heart rate variability and an altered cardiovascular adaptability concerning heart rate, blood pressure, cardiac output, and, on a trend level, peripheral resistance. With few exceptions, we found no differences between reactivity vs. recovery response patterns. Conclusions. Our results provide further evidence for altered cardiovascular reactivity and impaired cardiac autonomic functioning in depression. Further research is needed on psychophysiological response to either more disease-oriented or more personality-oriented stressors.