Correlation between Measures of Anxiety and Heart Rate Variability in Men and Women with Affective Disorders
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Correlation between Measures of Anxiety and Heart Rate Variability in Men and Women with Affective Disorders N. N. Lebedeva, E. D. Karimova, A. V. Vekhov, and G. B. Milovanova
UDC 612.821
Translated from Zhurnal Vysshei Nervnoi Deyatel’nosti imeni I. P. Pavlova, Vol. 69, No. 6, pp. 700–710, November–December, 2019. Original article submitted April 2, 2018. Revised version received August 3, 2018. Accepted September 24, 2018. Patients with affective disorders, apart from anxiety, tension, and apathy, often experience powerful palpitations and other signs of autonomic vascular dystonia. In seeking a link between the level of anxiety and cardiogram measures, we analyzed levels of trait and state anxiety on the Spielberger scale and measures of variational cardiometry (VCM) in 135 patients with depressive and anxiety disorders and 50 healthy subjects. After treatment, anxiety levels in patients decreased, though the only VCM parameter showing a significant reduction was the stress index. Sex-related differences were seen in both groups: trait anxiety was at a higher level in women than man and the index of sympathetic/parasympathetic interaction, LF/HF ratio o slow waves to fast waves), was lower in women than men. We found the first evidence for significant correlations in VCM measures and the level of anxiety during treatment: decreases in trait anxiety and LF were greater in patients with initially higher levels of trait anxiety; patients with low HF initially had decreased state anxiety. Keywords: affective disorders, stress, human operators, anxiety levels, variational cardiometry.
reaction becomes integrated in all structures of the body via the hypothalamo-hypophyseal-adrenal axis and the efferent sympathetico-adreno-medullar system [Leonard, 2000]. The autonomic nervous system (ANS) rapidly reacts and responds with changes in the cardiovascular, respiratory, gastroduodenal, adrenal, endocrine, and immune systems. Thus, impairments in affective disorders affect almost all domains of the body’s activities. It should particularly be emphasized that anxiety arising in affective disorders can induce psychoautonomosomatic impairments, which can be manifest as problems with the gastrointestinal tract and cardiovascular system [Kapfhammer, 2006]. This consideration of correlations between the severity of anxiety and impairments to the operation of the cardiovascular system constitute an important task in the treatment of affective disorders. Use of the Spielberger questionnaire with determination of trait and state anxiety scales provides the most adequate and simplest means of assessing anxiety levels [Batarshev, 2005]. Trait anxiety refers to a stable individual characteristic reflecting the subject’s predisposition to anxiety.
Introduction. Affective disorders are apparent as a whole set of symptoms, among which the main are depressed, stably lowered mood, lethargy, feelings of constant fatigue, impairment to cognitive functions, decreased memory and concentration, high heart rate, feelings of respiratory diffic
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