Study of Parasympathetic Activity in Newly Diagnosed Patients of Moderate Depression Using High Frequency of HRV

Introduction: - Heart Rate Variability (HRV) is a noninvasive technique to measure parasympathetic activities of heart. In this study, we measured the Parasympathetic activity in newly diagnosed patients of moderate depression by High Frequency (HF) parameter of HRV. Depression is the leading cause of mental disability and by the year 2020, depression is projected to reach 2nd place of the ranking of disease disability-adjusted life year (DALY).

Objective: Parasympathetic activity in newly diagnosed patients of moderate depression.

Method:- this study was planned on 40 newly diagnosed male patients of moderate depression according to ICD-10 (the international classification of diseases-10) taken from department of Psychiatry PGIMS Rohtak and 40 healthy males subjects of same age group. High Frequency (HF) parameter of HRV was recorded by using RMS polyrite machine.

Result: - The HF (ms²) component in frequency domain of HRV in patients of moderate depression in group II (166.55±41.48) compared to normal subject in group I (179.48±41.68) which reduced but not significantly. The HF expressed in normalized unit (HFnu) and group II (35.30±12.58) were compared to Group I (38.74±1276) and which reduced but not significantly. And HF expressed in power percent (HFpp) and values of group II (18.83±5.04) were compared to the Group I (20.58±5.02), the reduction was not significant.

Conclusion:-We found that Parasympathetic activity was not reduced significantly in patients of moderate depression. So the parasympathetic activity is not a problem to cause cardiac disease in patients of moderate depression.