Are Affective Disorders Associated With Alterations of Heart Rate Variability?

A standardized heart rate analysis was carried out in unmedicated patients with major depression, melancholic type, panic disorder, reactive depression with suicide attempts during the preceding 24 hours, and in 16 normal control subjects. In the patients with reactive depression, no differences could be detected as compared with the control group. The patients with panic disorder showed a significantly increased low-frequency band of spectral analysis, major depression patients had lower values