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Correlative relationship between body mass index and heart rate variability in psychiatric disorders

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European Archives of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Objective

Indicators of heart rate variability (HRV) have been used to assess the autonomic activity. However, the influence of obesity on HRV in these patients remains to be determined. This study aimed to examine how obesity (measured with the body mass index [BMI]) affects HRV and determine whether the effect varies among different psychiatric disorders. We recruited 3159 consecutive patients, including 1744 with schizophrenia, 966 with mood disorders, and 449 with anxiety disorders. Patients were divided into four groups based on BMI: underweight (< 18.5), normal weight (18.5–23.9), overweight (24–27.9), and obese (≥ 28). The cardiovascular status was assessed using several time- and frequency-based HRV indicators, measured via electrocardiogram signals recorded for 5 min. The mean BMI of the participants was 23.6 ± 4.0. The patients in the overweight and obese groups were 29.4% and 13.6% of the total, respectively. The HRV indicators were higher in underweight and normal-weight patients than in the overweight and obese ones. After stratification based on the psychiatric diagnosis, the patients with mood disorders showed lower HRV than those with schizophrenia or anxiety disorder in the normal-weight group. In contrast, in the overweight and obese groups the patients with mood disorders showed higher HRV than those with the other disorders. The HRV variables were significantly associated with BMI, and higher BMI was associated with higher heart rates and lower HRV. These results indicate that weight gain in psychiatric disorders is associated with an imbalance in autonomic nerve activity. However, the relationship between autonomic activity, weight gain, and psychiatric disorders warrants further investigation.

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Funding

This study was supported by National Key R&D Program of the Ministry of Science and Technology of China (2023YFC2506800), National Natural Science Foundation of China (82171544, 82371505, 82171497, 82151314, 82101623), and Clinical Research Plan of SHDC (SHDC2022CRD026, SHDC2020CR4066).

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Author notes

  1. WenZheng Wang, LinLin Zhou and Qiang Hu have contributed equally to this work and should be considered co-first authors.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Shanghai Mental Health Center, Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine, Shanghai Engineering Research Center of Intelligent Psychological Evaluation and Intervention, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Psychotic Disorders, Shanghai, 200030, China

    WenZheng Wang, LinLin Zhou, YuQing Gao, YanYan Wei, XiaoChen Tang, YeGang Hu, LiHua Xu, ChunBo Li, HaiSu Wu, JiJun Wang & TianHong Zhang

  2. Department of Psychiatry, Zhen Jiang Mental Health Center, Zhenjiang, People’s Republic of China

    Qiang Hu

  3. Department of Automation, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, 200240, China

    HaiChun Liu

  4. Shanghai Xinlianxin Psychological Counseling Center, Shanghai, China

    ZiXuan Wang

  5. Big Data Research Lab, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, Canada

    Tao Chen

  6. Labor and Worklife Program, Harvard University, Massachusetts, USA

    Tao Chen

  7. Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology (CEBSIT), Chinese Academy of Science, Beijing, People’s Republic of China

    JiJun Wang

  8. Institute of Psychology and Behavioral Science, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, People’s Republic of China

    JiJun Wang

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  1. WenZheng Wang
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Correspondence to HaiSu Wu, JiJun Wang or TianHong Zhang.

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Wang, W., Zhou, L., Hu, Q. et al. Correlative relationship between body mass index and heart rate variability in psychiatric disorders. Eur Arch Psychiatry Clin Neurosci (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00406-024-01768-1

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