Respiratory sinus arrhythmia correlates with depressive symptoms following mild traumatic brain injury.

In this study, we investigated if these patterns were observed throughout the typical timeframe of sub-acute mTBI recovery. Although RSA did not differ between mTBI (n = 50) and control (n = 27) groups, depressive symptoms were reliably correlated with RSA only in the mTBI group. This pattern was consistent 2 weeks, 2 months, and 4 months post-injury. Furthermore, resting RSA shortly following injury predicted the trajectory of depressive symptoms 2 months later. These findings generalize the connection between RSA and depression to a clinical population where depressive symptoms are common but often difficult to parse from other post-trauma consequences. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved)
Source: Journal of Psychophysiology - Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research