Heart period variability and depressive symptoms: gender differences.
BACKGROUND
Deceased heart period variability has been associated with cardiac events and depressive symptoms; however, the results of studies are not unequivocal. We hypothesize that gender differences in the various study samples may have contributed to the lack of uniformity of findings.


METHODS
Time and frequency domain measures of heart period variability during a 5-min resting baseline were examined in 15 depressed (8 female) and 11 nondepressed (6 female) college students.


RESULTS
Both time and frequency domain measures indicated an interaction between gender and depressive symptoms, such that depressed male subjects showed less heart period variability, whereas depressed female subjects showed more heart period variability compared to their nondepressed counterparts.


CONCLUSIONS
These results suggest that future studies investigating the relationship between heart period variability and depressive symptoms examine gender differences.
University of Missouri-Columbia 65211, USA.
J F
JF
Thayer
M
M
Smith
L A
LA
Rossy
J J
JJ
Sollers
B H
BH
Friedman
D000328:Adult; D003863:Depression / Q000503:physiopathology*; D004562:Electrocardiography; D005260:Female; D006339:Heart Rate / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012737:Sex Factors