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Heart rate variability at rest and during mental stress in patients with coronary artery disease: Differences in patients with high and low depression scores

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Abstract

This study tested the hypothesis that coronary artery disease (CAD) patients with high depressed mood scores differ in sympatho-vagal balance during mental stress compared to patients with low depressed mood scores. Using electrocardiographic monitoring, heart variability data from spectral analysis and hemodynamic parameters were obtained prior to and during mental stress from 34 men and 7 women. A public speaking task was used as the mental stressor. Patients were grouped by a median split of their Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-Depression score. During mental stress, patients with higher depression scores had greater changes in peak heart rate (p > .05) and low frequency to high frequency power ratio (p > 0.05) than patients with lower scores suggesting a shift toward more sympathetic activity during mental stress. These findings may be related to the reported relation between depression and survival risk in patients with CAD.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Cardiology, Department of Internal Medicine, East Tennessee Stale University, 70622, 37614-0622, Johnson City, TN, USA

    David Sheffield & David S. Sheps

  2. Division of Cardiology, Schools of Medicine and Public Health, University or North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, USA

    Rungroj Krittayaphong, Wayne E. Cascio & George Glekas

  3. Department of Psychiatry, Schools of Medicine and Public Health, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, USA

    Kathleen C. Light, Robert N. Golden & Jerry B. Finkel

  4. Department of Biostatistics, Schools of Medicine and Public Health, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, USA

    Gary G. Koch

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  1. David Sheffield
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  2. Rungroj Krittayaphong
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  3. Wayne E. Cascio
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  4. Kathleen C. Light
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  7. George Glekas
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  8. Gary G. Koch
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  9. David S. Sheps
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Additional information

This study was supported by Grant 1-R01-HL-47477 from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, General Clinical Research Center Grant RR00046 from the National Institutes of Health, and Cooperative Agreement CR817643 from the Environmental Protection Agency.

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Sheffield, D., Krittayaphong, R., Cascio, W.E. et al. Heart rate variability at rest and during mental stress in patients with coronary artery disease: Differences in patients with high and low depression scores. Int. J. Behav. Med. 5, 31–47 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327558ijbm0501_3

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