SynthesisBMC psychiatry2018
The association between electrodermal activity (EDA), depression and suicidal behaviour: A systematic review and narrative synthesis.
Synthesis in BMC psychiatry, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 74 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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
74 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 188 citations in OpenAlex.
- Physiological reactivity at rest and in response to social or emotional stimuli after a traumatic brain injury: A systematic review.Frontiers in psychology · 2023Pooled it
- Elevated Galvanic Skin Response and Associated Brain Network Patterns in Youth at High Familial Risk for Bipolar Disorder.JAACAP open · 2026Article
- Clinical use of electrodermal activity and current developments.European biophysics journal : EBJ · 2026Review
- Reflex vasodilation and sweating in response to passive whole body heating are blunted in women with major depressive disorder.Journal of applied physiology (Bethesda, Md. : 1985) · 2026Article
- Wearable technologies in clinical trials for drug development: trends and emerging opportunities.Nature reviews. Drug discovery · 2026Review
- Continuous Emotion Recognition Using EDA-Graphs: A Graph Signal Processing Approach for Affective Dimension Estimation.Applied sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Physiological evaluation of the emotional regulation of patients with hereditary angioedema.BioPsychoSocial medicine · 2026Article
- The use of multidimensional assessment in developmental age: How evaluation of the emotional-autonomic state can facilitate the differential diagnosis in psychopathology. Description of two case studies.Health psychology report · 2026Article
- Metabolic Plasticity in Schizophrenia: Clinical Rehabilitation Meets LC-MS Metabolomics and Neurofeedback.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Article
- Physiological and Personality Measures as Potential Factors Associated with Cardiac Coherence Training Effects on Symptoms Reduction: A Pilot Study on Healthcare Workers.Clinical neuropsychiatry · 2025Article
- Article
- Personalized models of eating disorder symptoms and suicide risk in anorexia nervosa spectrum disorders: protocol for a longitudinal, passive-sensing study.BMC psychology · 2025Article
- Bridging Gaps in Sundown Syndrome Research: a Scoping Review and Roadmap for Future Multimodal Approaches.Archives of clinical neuropsychology : the official journal of the National Academy of Neuropsychologists · 2025Article
- "It's All Under Control" - Description of the Dissociation Between Psychological Symptoms and Autonomic Arousal in People With Obsessive-compulsive Symptoms: A Case-control Study.Actas espanolas de psiquiatria · 2025Observational
- Enhancing Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy in a Virtual Reality: A Prospective Interventional Study.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Evidence of differences in diurnal electrodermal, temperature and heart rate patterns by mental health status in free-living data.BMJ mental health · 2025Article
- Article
- Emotion anticipation and processing in depression: Behavioral, neural, and physiological reactivity.European psychiatry : the journal of the Association of European Psychiatrists · 2025Article
- Dialectical behavior therapy in autistic adults: effects on ecological subjective and physiological measures of emotion dysregulation.Borderline personality disorder and emotion dysregulation · 2025Article
- Contribution of physiological dynamics in predicting major depressive disorder severity.Psychophysiology · 2025Article
14 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
8 authors at 4 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundElectrodermal activity (EDA) and other peripheral autonomic electrical parameters have been used as indicators of emotional states, including depressive states and suicidal state. We aimed to review EDA research systematically, focusing on EDA's usefulness as a biomarker for depression and suicidal behaviour.
methodsWe searched MEDLINE, Scopus, Cochrane Library, and Web of Science databases, following PRISMA guidelines. The initial screening of articles was based on titles and abstracts; then the full text was reviewed. A preliminary synthesis of findings was developed using tables, thematic analysis and quality ratings.
results1287 articles were screened and 77 relevant studies were identified and included in the systematic review. The studies were fairly consistent in maintaining that hypoactive electrodermal response is an established feature of patients affected by depression. There is also preliminary evidence that monitoring EDA may help to differentiate the phases of mood disorders. A few studies provided evidence that EDA can be used to differentiate acutely suicidal subjects from depressed patients who are not severely suicidal. Although EDA has been shown to be a valid, sensitive marker of suicidal ideation, suicide attempts and violent suicidal behaviour, it also seems to be influenced to some extent by antidepressant treatment.
conclusionsMost of the studies summarised in this review are quite outdated and employed a variety of designs and methods to evaluate EDA. This limits the generalisability of the results and makes it difficult to draw clear conclusions about the role of EDA in real-world settings. Electrodermal hypoactivity seems to be a reliable feature of depression and a valid marker of suicidal risk. Nevertheless, the potential utility of EDA in diagnosis, prevention, and treatment planning for depression and suicidal behaviour, should be thoroughly studied.
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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.