Association between major depressive disorder and heart rate variability in the Netherlands Study of Depression and Anxiety (NESDA).

Context: It has been hypothesized that depression is associated with lower heart rate variability and decreased cardiac vagal control. This may play an important role in the risk of cardiovascular diseaseamongdepressed individuals. Objective: To determine whether heart rate variability was lower in depressed individuals than in healthy controls in a large adult sample. Design: Cross-sectional analyses from a large depression cohort study. Setting: The Netherlands Study of Depression and Anxiety. Participants: Two thousand three hundred seventy-three individuals (mean age, 41.8 years; 66.8% fem... Mehr ...