Y. Khaykin et al., AUTONOMIC CORRELATES OF ANTIDEPRESSANT TREATMENT USING HEART-RATE-VARIABILITY ANALYSIS, Canadian journal of psychiatry, 43(2), 1998, pp. 183-186
Objective: To assess the 24-hour temporal-domain heart-rare variabilit
y correlates of treatment with fluoxetine or doxepin for depression. M
ethod: A randomized evaluation of fluoxetine and doxepin measured a 50
% change in the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS) score as a res
ponse to therapy and was correlated with measures of standard deviatio
n of the mean of all 5-minute segments of normal electrocardiographic
R-R intervals (SDANN), standard deviation of all normal R-R intervals
(SDNN), roof mean square of successive differences in R-R intervals (r
-MSSD), and percentage difference between adjacent normal R-R interval
s that are greater than 50 msec (pNN50) from 24-hour electrocardiogram
(ECG) rapes. Results: Ten out of 14 patients responded. Response was
associated with an increase in SDANN of 17% (p < 0.05). Nonresponse wa
s associated with a 17% decrease in SDANN and a 22% decrease in SDNN (
both P < 0.05). No other measures correlated with therapeutic response
. No heart-rate variability (HRV) differences between the 2 drug thera
pies were observed. Conclusion: Twenty-four-hour HRV measures may be u
seful in assessing response to antidepressant therapy.