Autonomic nervous function and electrogastrography analysis in patients with major depression disorder / 中华行为医学与脑科学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective:To study the alterations of autonomic nervous function in patients with major depression disorder, and to observe the relationship of their gastric electrical activity with the duration of depression, its severity and gastrointestinal symptoms.Methods:Electrogastrography (EGG) was performed before and after a test meal ingestion in 38 depressive patients and 38 healthy control subjects.The severity of depression was evaluated through Hamilton depression scale(HAMD-21) and Beck depression inventory(BDI). Autonomic symptoms were recorded by autonomic nervous symptom-score(ANS-score).Results:The amount of tachygastria in patients with depression before and after test meal were (24.99±1.73)%, (23.66±1.86)% respectively, the amount of tachygastria in healthy controls before and after test meal were(19.80±1.65)%, (15.48±1.50)% respectively.There was a significant group effect ( F(1, 148)=15.6, P=0.0001)) between the two groups.The amount of tachygastria between the two groups before and after test meal were significant different (before test meal P=0.033, after test meal P=0.001). The main power in patients with depression before and after test meal were(21.20±2.71)dB, (20.90±2.66)dB respectively, the main power in healthy controls before and after test meal were(26.45±2.62)dB, (28.94±2.68)dB respectively.There was a significant group effect ( F(1, 148)=6.203, P=0.014) between the two groups.The main power between the two groups after test meal were significant different( P=0.037). The percentage of arrythmia after test meal in patients with gastrointestinal symptoms(5.17±0.56)% was higher than the patients without gastrointestinal symptoms(3.19±0.46)%, the differences were statistically significant( P=0.011). And there was a significant difference ( P=0.029)of the instability coefficient of main power after test meal between the patients with gastrointestinal symptoms (0.44±0.06) and the patients without gastrointestinal symptoms (0.27±0.05). Besides, there was a significant positive correlation between duration of depression and percentage of postprandial tachycardia( r=0.491, P=0.002). Conclusion:Patients with depression have autonomic nerve dysfunction and abnormal gastric motility, which is related to the duration of the disease and whether the patients are accompanied by gastrointestinal symptoms.Electrogastrography can also be used as an index to measure autonomic nervous function in patients with depression.