Changes of HRV after Antidepressant Treatment in Psychiatric Outpatients / 신경정신의학

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to investigate the change of heart rate variability after antidepressant treatment in depressed or anxious patients. We tried to find the usefulness of heart rate variability as a predictive marker of response to pharmacological treatments in the psychiatric field. METHODS: Forty-seven patients with major depression, anxiety disorder, and somatoform disorder were treated over 4 weeks with antidepressants and were then classified as responders or nonresponders according to Hamilton depression scales or CGI scores. The HRV variables were measured and compared among the responders/nonresponders and the matched normal control. RESULTS: The responders group exhibited low heart rate, low PSI, high SDNN, RMSSD, HRV index, NN50, pNN50, LNTP, LNLF, and LNHF compared with the nonresponders after 4 weeks antidepressant treatment. However, no significant difference in HRV variables was observed between the responders group after treatment and the normal control group and the response group after treatment. CONCLUSION: These results indicate that HRV variables would are normalized after successful antidepressant treatment and it that HRV has some possible uses as a predicting marker of antidepressant response.