Heart Rate Variability in Psychiatric Disorders

Abstract

Objectives: The autonomic nervous system (ANS) dysregulation is a well known risk of adverse cardiovascular events. Analysis of heart rate variability (HRV) can give a valuable window into the ANS function being implicated in various medical diseases. But HRV analysis is not well established although psychiatric research findings have shown considerable association of psychopathology with cardiovascular comorbidity. In this review, we introduce the principle and technique of HRV analysis and illustrate how HRV analysis can shed light on neurobiology of psychiatric disorders. Methods: We present HRV methods and applications to quantify ANS dysregulation associated with psychiatric disorders. We will also highlight the novel approaches of HRV analysis to study mental illnesses in the context of genetic inferences and sleep physiology. Results: Symptoms of ANS disturbance are common in psychiatric disorders. HRV analysis has been used to quantify ANS dysregulation in depression, anxiety, and schizophrenia. Moreover, we reveal that some variations in genes, such as the genes encoding apolipoprotein-E and brain-derived neurotrophic factor, may have significant impact on cardiac dynamics which are implicated in psychopathology of psychiatric disorders. Finally, we introduce cardiopulmonary coupling analysis which is adopted from HRV analysis to show its application to quantify sleep stability. Conclusions: Investigating ANS functions may give insight into understanding neurobiology of psychiatric disorders. We need prospective studies of ANS dysregulation in various psychiatric disorders to evaluate their psychopathology connected with cardiovascular comorbidity.