Characteristics of Heart Rate Variability in War Veterans with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder after Myocardial Infarction

Abstract

Post-MI patients with PTSD have higher sympathetic and lower parasympathetic heart rate modulation activity, compared with patients with MI and no PTSD.

Military Sexual Trauma Exposure and Heart Rate Variability Outcomes in Female Veterans

“…These results extend knowledge and support of HRV decline (Lakusic et al, 2007) found in cardiac patients with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) compared to similar patients without PTSD. A majority (80%) of subjects in the current research with MST had PTSD, which supports previous findings of increased adjusted odds ratio (AOR) of developing current (AOR =7.15, 95% CI = 4.03-12.69) and lifetime (AOR = 7.03, 95% CI = 5.05-9.79) PTSD following MST .…”

“…PTSD participants (n = 14) had significantly higher resting heart rate and lower HRV measures of LF, HF, and LF/HF ratio (p < .001 all) than controls (n = 25) (Cohen, Benjamin, et al, 2000). Post-MI veterans with PTSD (n = 34) had significant differences in HRV indices with decreased R-R intervals (p = .02) and HF (p = .03) and increased LF (p = .01) and LF/HF ratio (p = .02) compared to post-MI veterans without PTSD (n = 34) (Lakusic et al, 2007). Mortality risk was increased threefold (hazard ratio 3.45; 95% CI = 1.57-7.60; p = .002) in patients with an ICD who had PTSD (n = 38) over those with and ICD and no PTSD (n = 109) (Ladwig et al, 2008).…”

“…This is the first study that utilized 10-second strips from ECG and Holter recordings to specifically document diminished HRV in younger female veterans with MST exposure and adds support to previous work suggesting lower HRVis associated with PTSD (Lakusic et al, 2007). As recommended, to enhance reliability of 10-second Holter and ECG tracings (Schroeder et al, 2004), the mean of three available 10-second strips for each subject was used for this study.…”

The STRIVE-ONR Project: Stress Resistance in Virtual Environments

“…High HRV has been considered adaptive given that much support has been found for its relationship with greater capacities to regulate stress, emotional arousal, resistance to stress, and positive emotions (Bomstein & Suess, 2000;Forges, Doussard-Roosevelt, Portales, & Greenspan, 1996). Low HRV, contrarily, has been considered maladaptive given consistent findings of its relationship with pathophysiology (Bemtson et al, 1996;Dekker et al, 2000) and with several psychological disorders (Carney et al, 2000;Lakusic, 2007;McCraty, Atkinson, Tomasino, & Stuppy, 2001;Rechlin, Weis, Spitzer, & Kaschka, 1994). Given the use of HRV as an outcome measure of autonomic resiliency, the current study was undertaken in order to examine whether HRV can also predict psychological variables of resilience-general stress resiliency, attachment security, and resilient personality factors.…”

“…These same researchers have also disregarded the meaningfulness of the LF/HF ratio, (Carney et al, 2000;Rechlin, Weis, Spitzer, & Kaschka, 1994). There have also been several studies showing that low HRV is related to mental health disorders related to disruptions of autonomic function, such as Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD; Cohen et al, 2000;Lakusic, 2007;Lee & Theus, 2012). One major cluster of symptoms associated with PTSD is hyperarousal (e.g., irritability, hypervigilance, difficulty concentrating, being easily startled, difficulty falling or staying asleep), which suggests dysregulation within the autonomic nervous system, specifically attenuated parasympathetic activity and elevated sympathetic activity (Blechert, Michael, Grossman, Lajtman, & Wilhem, 2007).…”