ArticlePsychosomatic medicine2008
Depressive symptoms and heart rate variability: evidence for a shared genetic substrate in a study of twins.
Article in Psychosomatic medicine, 2008. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 48 papers.
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Who cites it
48 citing papers in PubMed, 82 citations in OpenAlex.
- Genetic vulnerability and phenotypic expression of depression and risk for ischemic heart disease in the Vietnam era twin study of aging.Psychosomatic medicine · 2010Trial
- The Role of Neuroinflammation in the Comorbidity of Psychiatric Disorders and Internal Diseases.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Heart Rate Variability, Deceleration Capacity of Heart Rate, and Death: A Veteran Twins Study.Journal of the American Heart Association · 2024Article
- A Pilot Study of Neurobiological Mechanisms of Stress and Cardiovascular Risk.Medical research archives · 2023Article
- Rethinking the risk for depression using the RDoC: A psychophysiological perspective.Frontiers in psychology · 2023Review
- Modulation of Heart and Brain Function by Surah Al-Rehman Recitation Among Distressed Diabetic Patients in Pakistan.Journal of religion and health · 2022Article
- The temporal relationships between sleep disturbance and autonomic dysregulation: A co-twin control study.International journal of cardiology · 2022Article
- Traditional and Emerging Sex-Specific Risk Factors for Cardiovascular Disease in Women.Reviews in cardiovascular medicine · 2022Review
- Heart Rate Fractality Disruption as a Footprint of Subthreshold Depressive Symptoms in a Healthy Population.Clinical neuropsychiatry · 2022Article
- Association of Depressive Symptoms with Sleep Disturbance: A Co-twin Control Study.Annals of behavioral medicine : a publication of the Society of Behavioral Medicine · 2022Article
- A Web-Based Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Mindfulness Meditation, and Yoga Intervention for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: Single-Arm Experimental Clinical Trial.JMIR mental health · 2022Article
- DNA Methylation of TXNIP Independently Associated with Inflammation and Diabetes Mellitus in Twins.Twin research and human genetics : the official journal of the International Society for Twin Studies · 2021Article
- Plasma homocysteine concentrations and depression: A twin study.Journal of affective disorders reports · 2021Article
- Transcutaneous cervical vagal nerve stimulation reduces sympathetic responses to stress in posttraumatic stress disorder: A double-blind, randomized, sham controlled trial.Neurobiology of stress · 2020Article
- Depression and coronary heart disease: 2018 position paper of the ESC working group on coronary pathophysiology and microcirculation.European heart journal · 2020Article
- Alterations in heart rate variability are associated with abnormal myocardial perfusion.International journal of cardiology · 2020Article
- Expectations of Racism and Carotid Intima-Media Thickness in African American Women.Psychosomatic medicine · 2019Article
- Association of Depressive Symptoms and Heart Rate Variability in Vietnam War-Era Twins: A Longitudinal Twin Difference Study.JAMA psychiatry · 2018Article
- Untargeted metabolomics reveals multiple metabolites influencing smoking-related DNA methylation.Epigenomics · 2018Article
- Mental Stress and Ventricular Arrhythmias.Current cardiology reports · 2016Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
12 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
objectiveTo clarify the relationship between depression and heart rate variability (HRV) in a sample of twins. Reduced HRV, a measure of autonomic dysfunction, has been linked to depression but many studies have inadequately controlled for familial and environmental factors. Furthermore, little is known about whether depression and HRV share common genetic pathways.
methodsWe performed power spectral analysis on 24-hour ambulatory electrocardiograms in 288 middle-aged male twins. Log-normalized ultra low, very low, low, high frequency, and total power were calculated. A lifetime history of major depressive disorder (MDD) was determined, using the Structured Clinical Interview for Psychiatry Disorders, and current depressive symptoms were measured with the Beck Depression Inventory. Mixed-effect regression models were used to account for intrapair variability and estimate within-pair effects at the same time controlling for potential confounders.
resultsBoth current depressive symptoms and a history of MDD were significantly associated with lower HRV. There was a graded effect, and power in each frequency band was 29% to 36% lower in the lowest band compared with the highest BDI category. All HRV measures except high frequency remained significantly associated with current depressive symptoms in multivariable analysis, but not with lifetime history of MDD. When analyses were stratified by zygosity, a significant within-pair association between BDI score and HRV was found in the dizygotic but not in the monozygotic twins, suggesting a genetic influence on the association.
conclusionsA shared, genetically influenced biological pathway underlies the association between depression and lower HRV. These two phenotypes may be the expression of a generalized neurobiological perturbation.
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