Does comorbid anxiety affect heart rate variability in unmedicated, physically healthy patients with Major Depressive Disorder?
Physically healthy, unmedicated patients with MDD, particularly those with comorbid GAD, exhibit reduced heart rate variability, highlighting a potential mechanism for increased cardiovascular risk in this population.
Unmedicated, physically healthy MDD patients with and without comorbid anxiety had reduced HRV. Those with comorbid GAD showed the greatest reductions. Implications for cardiovascular risk reduction strategies in otherwise healthy patients with psychiatric illness are discussed.
Kemp et al. (Wed,) studied this question.
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