ArticleBMC psychiatry2017
Effect of short-term heart rate variability biofeedback on long-term abstinence in alcohol dependent patients - a one-year follow-up.
Article in BMC psychiatry, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 18 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
18 citing papers in PubMed, 28 citations in OpenAlex.
- Heart Rate Variability Biofeedback for Substance Use Disorder: A Randomized Clinical Trial.JAMA psychiatry · 2025Trial
- A Pilot Randomized Control Study on Effect Brief Heart Rate Variability Biofeedback as a Complementary Treatment in Men with Methamphetamine Use Disorder.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Trial
- Directional Brain Connectivity Changes Induced by Heart Rate Variability Biofeedback: A Spectral Dynamic Causal Modeling Study.Research square · 2026Article
- Exercise Training Interventions as Therapeutic Approaches in Substance Use Disorder Treatment: A Scoping Review of Direct Clinical Outcomes and Implementation Strategies.Diseases (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- The autonomic nervous system in the regulation of glucose and lipid metabolism.Nature reviews. Endocrinology · 2026Review
- Article
- Heart Rate Variability: A Measure of Cardiovascular Health and Possible Therapeutic Target in Dysautonomic Mental and Neurological Disorders.Applied psychophysiology and biofeedback · 2022Review
- Heart Rate Variability Biofeedback for Substance Use Disorder: Health Policy Implications.Policy insights from the behavioral and brain sciences · 2022Article
- Closing the brain-heart loop: Towards more holistic models of addiction and addiction recovery.Addiction biology · 2022Review
- SUBSTANCE USE AND ADDICTION AFFECT MORE THAN THE BRAIN: THE PROMISE OF NEUROCARDIAC INTERVENTIONS.Current addiction reports · 2021Article
- Resonance frequency is not always stable over time and could be related to the inter-beat interval.Scientific reports · 2021Article
- Improvement in women's cardiovascular functioning during cognitive-behavioral therapy for alcohol use disorder.Psychology of addictive behaviors : journal of the Society of Psychologists in Addictive Behaviors · 2019Observational
- Theoretical implications and clinical support for heart rate variability biofeedback for substance use disorders.Current opinion in psychology · 2019Review
- Substance craving changes in university students receiving heart rate variability biofeedback: A longitudinal multilevel modeling approach.Addictive behaviors · 2019Article
- Sex differences in stress-related alcohol use.Neurobiology of stress · 2019Review
- Resonance-Paced Breathing Alters Neural Response to Visual Cues: Proof-of-Concept for a Neuroscience-Informed Adjunct to Addiction Treatments.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2019Article
- Stress and craving reduction under treatment with heart rate variability biofeedback and the Phramongkutklao model among patients with alcohol use disorder.Psychology research and behavior management · 2019Article
- Cardiac dysautonomia in depression - heart rate variability biofeedback as a potential add-on therapy.Neuropsychiatric disease and treatment · 2019Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundA randomized controlled study (RCT) recently showed that short-term heart rate variability (HRV) biofeedback in addition to standard rehabilitation care for alcohol dependence can reduce craving, anxiety and improve cardiovascular autonomic function. In this one-year follow-up study we aimed to explore whether completion of 2-week HRV-Biofeedback training is associated with long-term abstinence. Furthermore, we sought to identify potential predictors of post-treatment abstinence.
methodsWe conducted a survey on abstinence in patients with alcohol dependence 1 year after completion of an RCT comparing HRV-biofeedback in addition to inpatient rehabilitation treatment alone (controls). Abstinence rates were compared and analysed for association with demographic data as well as psychometric and autonomic cardiac assessment before and after completion of the biofeedback training using bivariate and multivariate regression analyses.
resultsOut of 48 patients who participated in the RCT, 27 patients (9 females, ages 42.9 ± 8.6, mean ± SD) completed our one-year follow-up. When including in the analysis only patients who completed follow-up, the rate of abstinence tended to be higher in patients who underwent HRV-biofeedback 1 year earlier compared to those who received rehabilitative treatment alone (66.7% vs 50%, p = ns). This non-significant trend was also observed in the intention-to-treat analysis where patients who did not participate in the follow-up were assumed to have relapsed (46,7% biofeedback vs. 33.3% controls, p = ns). Neither cardiac autonomic function nor psychometric variables were associated with abstinence 1 year after HRV-biofeedback.
conclusionOur follow-up study provide a first indication of possible increase in long-term abstinence after HRV-biofeedback for alcohol dependence in addition to rehabilitation.
trial registrationThe original randomized controlled trial was registered in the German Clinical Trials Register ( DRKS00004618 ). This one-year follow-up survey has not been registered.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.