ArticleFrontiers in neuroscience2020
Implementing Mobile HRV Biofeedback as Adjunctive Therapy During Inpatient Psychiatric Rehabilitation Facilitates Recovery of Depressive Symptoms and Enhances Autonomic Functioning Short-Term: A 1-Year Pre-Post-intervention Follow-Up Pilot Study.
Article in Frontiers in neuroscience, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT07628699 (Digital Heart Rate Variability Biofeedback Intervention for First Episode Psychosis), which is not on this map. Cited by 18 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
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.
The trial behind it
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.
Digital Heart Rate Variability Biofeedback Intervention for First Episode Psychosis: A Randomized Controlled Trial
Who cites it
18 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 36 citations in OpenAlex.
- Efficacy and Methodology of Remote Heart Rate Variability Biofeedback Interventions for Mental Health: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Applied psychophysiology and biofeedback · 2026Pooled it
- From Lung to Brain: Respiration Modulates Neural and Mental Activity.Neuroscience bulletin · 2023Pooled it
- A meta-analysis investigating the outcomes and correlation between heart rate variability biofeedback training on depressive symptoms and heart rate variability outcomes versus standard treatment in comorbid adult populations.Acta bio-medica : Atenei Parmensis · 2023Pooled it
- A meta-analysis on heart rate variability biofeedback and depressive symptoms.Scientific reports · 2021Pooled it
- Trial
- It's About Time-Breathing Dynamics Modulate Emotion and Cognition.Psychophysiology · 2025Article
- Effectiveness of 2 Just-in-Time Adaptive Interventions for Reducing Stress and Stabilizing Cardiac Autonomic Function: Microrandomized Trials.Journal of medical Internet research · 2025Article
- Biofeedback Training in Inpatient Mental Health Facilities: A Scoping Review.Journal of clinical medicine · 2025Review
- Integrating dynamic psychophysiological indices across time and contexts: Elucidating mechanisms, risk markers, and intervention targets.Psychophysiology · 2024Review
- Article
- The Utility of Heartrate and Heartrate Variability Biofeedback for the Improvement of Interoception across Behavioural, Physiological and Neural Outcome Measures: A Systematic Review.Brain sciences · 2024Review
- Squeeze the beat: Enhancing cardiac vagal activity during resonance breathing via coherent pelvic floor recruitment.Psychophysiology · 2022Article
- Singing at 0.1 Hz as a Resonance Frequency Intervention to Reduce Cardiovascular Stress Reactivity?Frontiers in psychiatry · 2022Article
- Depressive rumination and heart rate variability: A pilot study on the effect of biofeedback on rumination and its physiological concomitants.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2022Article
- Cardiac vagal activity is associated with gut-microbiome patterns in women-An exploratory pilot study.Dialogues in clinical neuroscience · 2022Article
- Increasing Heart Rate Variability through Progressive Muscle Relaxation and Breathing: A 77-Day Pilot Study with Daily Ambulatory Assessment.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021Article
- Short Term Caloric Restriction and Biofeedback Enhance Psychological Wellbeing and Reduce Overweight in Healthy Women.Journal of personalized medicine · 2021Article
- A Study to Evaluate Role of Integrative Yoga-based Interventions on Cognitive and Autonomic Functions among Major Depressive Disorder.International journal of yogaArticle
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectiveNew treatment options for depression are warranted, due to high recurrence rates. Recent research indicates benefits of heart rate variability biofeedback (HRVBF) on symptom recovery and autonomic functioning in depressed individuals. Slow-paced breathing-induced amplification of vagus nerve activity is the main element of HRVBF. Thus, the latter represents a safe and non-invasive complementary depression treatment. However, its efficacy in patients undergoing inpatient psychiatric rehabilitation receiving highly comprehensive treatments has not been evaluated.
methodsNinety-two inpatients were randomly assigned to an intervention group (IG) or control group (CG). While the latter received the standard treatment only, adjunctive HRVBF was provided to the IG over 5 weeks. Depression severity and heart rate variability (HRV) were assessed before (pre) and after 5 weeks (post). Moreover, 1-year follow-up depression scores were available for 30 participants.
resultsAlthough depression improved in both groups, the IG exhibited significantly larger improvements at post-assessment (
conclusionHRVBF as adjuvant therapy during inpatient psychiatric rehabilitation facilitated depression recovery. Additionally, amplified LF-HRV as well as cardiorespiratory coherence at rest and a decrease in resting breathing frequency was observed in the HRVBF group. These findings emphasize HRVBF's value as complementary therapy regardless of concurrent treatments. Moreover, these incremental benefits could serve as resource even after the actual training period. However, the additional antidepressant gains vanish during the long-term follow-up, indicating the need for more intense training or regular practice afterward, respectively. Thus, future studies are warranted to examine how the initial benefits of HRVBF during inpatient psychiatric rehabilitation can be preserved post discharge.
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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.