ARE AFFECTIVE-DISORDERS ASSOCIATED WITH ALTERATIONS OF HEART-RATE-VARIABILITY

A standardized heart rate analysis was carried out in unmedicated pati ents with major depression, melancholic type (n = 16), panic disorder (n = 16), reactive depression with suicide attempts during the precedi ng 24 h (n = 16) and in 16 normal control subjects. The investigations included time- and frequency-derived measurements of heart rate varia bility. In the patients with reactive depression, no differences could be detected as compared with the control group. The patients with pan ic disorder showed a significantly increased low-frequency band of spe ctral analysis (P < 0.01) and a marginally significant increment of he art rate (P = 0.05), probably indicating predominance of sympathetic c ontrol of heart rate. In the patients with major depression, we found significantly lower values of heart's beat-to-beat intervals and of th e high-frequency peak of spectral analysis than in the other groups (P < 0.025), indicating decreased parasympathetic activity.