Respiratory sinus arrhythmia reactivity in current and remitted major depressive disorder
Open accessAbstract
OBJECTIVE: Low resting respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) levels and blunted RSA reactivity are thought to index impaired emotion regulation capacity. Major depressive disorder (MDD) has been associated with aberrant RSA reactivity and recovery to a speech stressor task relative to healthy controls. Whether impaired RSA functioning reflects aspects of the depressed mood state or a stable vulnerability marker for depression is unknown. METHODS: We compared resting RSA and RSA reactivity between adults with MDD (n = 49), remitted depression (RMD, n = 24), and healthy controls (n = 45). Electrocardiogram data were collected during a resting baseline, a paced-breathing baseline, and two reactivity tasks (speech stressor, cold exposure). RESULTS: A group by time quadratic effect emerged (F(2,109) = 4.36, p = .015) for RSA across phases of the speech stressor (baseline, instruction, preparation, speech, recovery). Follow-up analyses revealed that those with MDD uniquely exhibited blunted RSA reactivity, whereas RMD and controls both exhibited the anticipated task-related vagal withdrawal and posttask recovery. The group by time interaction remained after covariation for age, sex, waist circumference, physical activity, and respiration, but not sleep quality. CONCLUSIONS: These results provide new evidence that aberrant RSA reactivity marks features that track the depressed state, such as poor sleep, rather than a stable trait evident among asymptomatic persons.
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Depressed adults exhibit blunted RSA withdrawal to psychological stressors, such as a speech task.
“More consistent findings have been observed for RSA reactivity in response to laboratory tasks, with depressed adults exhibiting blunted RSA withdrawal to psychological stressors, such as a speech task (Bylsma et al., 2014;Rottenberg et al., 2007)”
From Physiological feelings (2019) · cites this paper as Bylsma et al., 2014
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“More consistent findings have been observed for RSA reactivity in response to laboratory tasks, with depressed adults exhibiting blunted RSA withdrawal to psychological stressors, such as a speech task (Bylsma et al., 2014; Rottenberg et al., 2007), as well as physical”
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- Authors
- Bylsma, L. M., Salomon, K., Taylor-Clift, A., Morris, B. H., & Rottenberg, J.
- Affiliations
- University of South Florida (US)
- Rush University Medical Center (US)
- Corresponding author
- Rottenberg, Jonathan
- Venue
- Psychosomatic Medicine
- Published
- 2014-01
- Volume
- 76
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 66-73
- ISSN
- 0033-3174 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC3906687
- OpenAlex
- W2016776612
- Cited by
- 89
- References
- 68
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 7 · 2023: 7 · 2022: 4 · 2021: 5 · 2020: 14 · 2019: 13 · 2018: 7 · 2017: 8 · 2016: 7 · 2015: 7 · 2014: 2 · 2013: 1
- FWCI
- 3.85
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Psychosomatic Medicine (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institute of Mental Health (R21MH077669, MH077669-02, L30MH101750)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Cardiology and Cardiovascular Medicine › Heart Rate Variability and Autonomic Control
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Neurology › Vagus Nerve Stimulation Research
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Cardiology and Cardiovascular Medicine › Cardiac Health and Mental Health
- Keywords
- respiratory sinus arrhythmia, major depressive disorder, remitted depression, vagal withdrawal, cold exposure, emotion regulation, sleep quality, autonomic nervous system
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Depression, Major Depressive Disorder, Electrocardiography, Female, Heart Rate, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Psychiatric Status Rating Scales, Remission Induction, Respiration, Severity of Illness Index, Stress, Physiological, Stress, Psychological
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