Patients with major depressive disorder had significantly lower high-frequency heart rate variability compared to healthy controls at baseline, which normalized after 2 weeks of antidepressant treatment.
Observational (n=127)
No
Do heart rate variability parameters change with antidepressant treatment and correlate with symptom severity in depressive individuals?
Changes in heart rate variability parameters correlate with changes in depression symptom severity after two weeks of antidepressant treatment, suggesting HRV may serve as an indicator of clinical state.
Absolute Event Rate: 28.593% vs 40.782%
p-value: p=0.000
Background Depression is a severe disease with great burdens for the affected individuals and public health care systems. Autonomic nervous system (ANS) dysfunction indexed by measures of heart rate variability (HRV) has repeatedly been associated with depression. However, HRV parameters are subject to a wide range of multi-factorial influences and underlying mechanisms in depression are still unclear. HRV parameters have been proposed to be promising candidates for diagnostic or predictive bio-markers for depression but necessary longitudinal design studies investigating the relationship between HRV and depression are scarce. Methods The sample consists of 131 matched depressive and non-depressive individuals without antidepressant medication prior to anti-depressive treatment. In a repeated measurements design 15 minutes of resting ECG signals were recorded 1 to 2 days before and 2 weeks after onset of antidepressant treatment. ECG signals were pre-processed to extract inter-beat-intervals. Linear and non-linear methods were carried out to analyze and calculate HRV parameters. Results Analyzes revealed HRV parameter differences between groups of depressive and non-depressive individuals at baseline. Further results show differences in HRV parameters within subject after two weeks of antidepressant treatment. Change in HRV parameter values correlate with changes in symptom severity of depression. Discussion Results provide further insight into the relationship between HRV parameters and depression in a repeated measurements design. HRV parameters are evaluated for potential utilization as indicators for clinical state of depression.
Hartmann et al. (Thu,) conducted a observational in Major Depressive Disorder (n=127). Antidepressant treatment vs. Healthy controls was evaluated on HF power in % at baseline (p=0.000). Patients with major depressive disorder had significantly lower high-frequency heart rate variability compared to healthy controls at baseline, which normalized after 2 weeks of antidepressant treatment.
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