TY - JOUR
T1 - Sex differences in cardiac vagal control in a depressed sample
T2 - Implications for differential cardiovascular mortality
AU - Chambers, Andrea S.
AU - Allen, John J.B.
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was supported, in part, by a grant from the National Institutes of Health (R01 AT00001). The authors wish to thank Sabrina Hitt, Sandra Gallagher, Keo Taitano, Maritza Martinez, and Kristin Ertter for their assistance in this study. Address correspondence to John J.B. Allen or Andrea Chambers, Department of Psychology, University of Arizona, P.O. Box 210068, Tucson, AZ 85721-0068. Electronic mail: [email protected] or [email protected] . Portions of the present manuscript were presented at the annual meeting of the Society for Psychophysiological Research, October 2002, Washington, DC.
PY - 2007/4
Y1 - 2007/4
N2 - Previous studies suggest depression is a risk factor for all cause mortality, with depressed men at greater risk than depressed women. Diminished cardiac vagal control (CVC) in depressed patients has also been found to increase risk of cardiac mortality. Previous research found that depressed women have higher CVC than depressed men suggesting CVC might be related to the discrepancy in mortality rates between depressed men and women. This finding, however, was in the context of a study with several methodological weaknesses. The current study sought to replicate the sex difference in CVC in a sample of 137 medically healthy and clinically diagnosed depressed patients. Main effects of sex and age significantly predicted CVC such that depressed women had greater CVC and CVC decreased with age in the cross-sectional sample. The results suggest greater CVC in depressed women might confer cardioprotective functions, which may partially explain the sex difference in mortality rates in the depressed population.
AB - Previous studies suggest depression is a risk factor for all cause mortality, with depressed men at greater risk than depressed women. Diminished cardiac vagal control (CVC) in depressed patients has also been found to increase risk of cardiac mortality. Previous research found that depressed women have higher CVC than depressed men suggesting CVC might be related to the discrepancy in mortality rates between depressed men and women. This finding, however, was in the context of a study with several methodological weaknesses. The current study sought to replicate the sex difference in CVC in a sample of 137 medically healthy and clinically diagnosed depressed patients. Main effects of sex and age significantly predicted CVC such that depressed women had greater CVC and CVC decreased with age in the cross-sectional sample. The results suggest greater CVC in depressed women might confer cardioprotective functions, which may partially explain the sex difference in mortality rates in the depressed population.
KW - Heart period variability
KW - Major depression
KW - Sex differences
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U2 - 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2006.11.001
DO - 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2006.11.001
M3 - Article
C2 - 17204359
AN - SCOPUS:33947289092
SN - 0301-0511
VL - 75
SP - 32
EP - 36
JO - Biological Psychology
JF - Biological Psychology
IS - 1
ER -