SynthesisPsychological medicine2020
Autonomic dysfunction in posttraumatic stress disorder indexed by heart rate variability: a meta-analysis.
Synthesis in Psychological medicine, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to 2 registered trials, which are not on this map. Cited by 129 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.
Impact of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy on Neural, Inflammatory, & Autonomic Markers in a Sample With PTSD and Cardiovascular Risk: Protocol for a Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial
Teaching Youth & Families Self-Regulation Skills to Disrupt the Impact of Adverse Childhood Experiences: Preventing Substance Use in Adversity- Impacted Youth
Who cites it
129 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 225 citations in OpenAlex.
- Prospective biomarkers of posttraumatic stress disorder in children and adolescents: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Translational psychiatry · 2026Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Association between non-acute Traumatic Injury (TI) and Heart Rate Variability (HRV) in adults: A systematic review and meta-analysis.PloS one · 2023Pooled it
- Trauma-related dissociation and the autonomic nervous system: a systematic literature review of psychophysiological correlates of dissociative experiencing in PTSD patients.European journal of psychotraumatology · 2022Pooled it
- Rapid Reduction in Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Symptom Severity after Three Fascial Counterstrain Manual Treatments: A Proof-of-Concept Study.Military medicine · 2026Trial
- The Effects of a Single Vagus Nerve's Neurodynamics on Heart Rate Variability in Chronic Stress: A Randomized Controlled Trial.Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Trial
- Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia Change during Trauma-Focused Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy: Results from a Randomized Controlled Feasibility Trial.Research on child and adolescent psychopathology · 2022Trial
- Trial
- Cumulative trauma exposure and cardiac autonomic stress reactivity in healthy adults.European journal of psychotraumatology · 2026Article
- Predicting longitudinal post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms using psychological measures and heart rate variability: a machine-learning approach.European journal of psychotraumatology · 2026Article
- Visual analysis of interventions and treatments for post-traumatic stress disorder in the military population over the past decade: a study based on the PubMed database.European journal of psychotraumatology · 2026Review
- Cumulative trauma, neural circuits, and burnout: an integrative model of healthcare worker post-traumatic stress syndromes.European journal of psychotraumatology · 2026Review
- Tropical cyclones and acute coronary syndromes: a Chinese nationwide study.European heart journal · 2026Article
- Psycho-cardiovascular interaction network in cardiovascular health and disease: signaling pathways and molecular mechanisms.Precision clinical medicine · 2026Review
- Resting sympathetic transduction in veterans with PTSD.Clinical autonomic research : official journal of the Clinical Autonomic Research Society · 2026Article
- Autonomic and neural responses to varying transcutaneous cervical electrical stimulation parameters.Bioelectronic medicine · 2026Article
- Individuals with posttraumatic stress disorder have increased beat-to-beat blood pressure variability.American journal of physiology. Regulatory, integrative and comparative physiology · 2026Article
- Beyond the Breath: Improving Interoceptive Awareness & Autonomic Regulation through Trauma-Informed Biofeedback for Veterans.Applied psychophysiology and biofeedback · 2026Article
- Circadian instability following mass trauma predicts PTSD risk.Translational psychiatry · 2026Article
- Post-traumatic stress disorder and cardiometabolic dysfunction: Molecular mechanisms and therapeutic targets.iScience · 2026Review
69 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
2 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundChanges in autonomic nervous system (ANS) function have been observed in a variety of psychological disorders, including posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Analysis of heart rate variability (HRV) provides insight into the functioning of the ANS. Previous research on PTSD found lower HRV in PTSD patients compared to controls, indicating altered sympathetic and parasympathetic activity, but findings are inconsistent. The purpose of this meta-analysis was to examine differences in HRV indices between individuals with PTSD and healthy controls at baseline and during stress.
methodsThe included primary studies present an aggregate of studies analyzing different HRV indices. Examined HRV indices were standard deviation of the normalized NN-intervals (SDNN), root mean square of successive differences (RMSSD), low-frequency (LF) and high-frequency (HF) spectral components, LF/HF ratio, and heart rate (HR). Moderating effects of study design, HRV and PTSD assessment, and sample characteristics were examined via subgroup-analyses and meta-regressions.
resultsRandom-effects meta-analyses for HRV parameters at rest revealed significant group differences for RMSSD and HF-HRV, suggesting lower parasympathetic activity in PTSD. The aggregated effect size for SDNN was medium, suggesting diminished total variability in PTSD. A small effect was found for LF-HRV. A higher LF/HF ratio was found in the PTSD sample as compared to controls. Individuals with PTSD showed significantly higher HR. During stress, individuals with PTSD showed higher HR and lower HF-HRV, both indicated by small effect sizes.
conclusionsFindings suggest that PTSD is associated with ANS dysfunction.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
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.