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.
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Translated from Zhurnal Vysshei Nervnoi Deyatel’nosti imeni I. P. Pavlova, Vol. 69, No. 6, pp. 700–710, November–December, 2019.
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Lebedeva, N.N., Karimova, E.D., Vekhov, A.V. et al. Correlation between Measures of Anxiety and Heart Rate Variability in Men and Women with Affective Disorders. Neurosci Behav Physi 50, 743–749 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11055-020-00961-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11055-020-00961-8