Adolph Dirk, Zhang Xiao Chi, Teismann Tobias, Wannemüller Andre, Margraf Jürgen
Mental Health Research and Treatment Center, Ruhr University Bochum, Bochum, Germany.
Psychophysiology. 2025 Jun;62(6):e70079. doi: 10.1111/psyp.70079.
Respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) reflects the activity of a cortico-limbic control system, enabling the flexible regulation of cardiac output via the parasympathetic nervous system. We assessed two markers of RSA, that is resting RSA (rRSA) and RSA reactivity (ΔRSA) and evaluated their common and distinct role for regulating emotional reactivity across depressive and anxiety disorders and their treatments. We recruited samples of healthy controls and patients with anxiety and depressive disorders, assessed rRSA during baseline and ΔRSA as RSA change from baseline to viewing emotional films. Patients then underwent disorder-specific cognitive behavior therapy. Although both patient groups exhibited lower rRSA than controls, depression-but not anxiety-symptomatology was transdiagnostically associated with less rRSA and ΔRSA. Complementing these depression-specific results, better ΔRSA predicted better treatment outcome in depression, but not anxiety. Our data confirm RSA as a transdiagnostic marker for mood and anxiety, support recent attempts toward transdiagnostic, dimensional classification systems (HiToP, RDoC) and provide evidence for a more robust association of RSA with depression symptomatology and treatment. This renders rRSA and ΔRSA potential markers to assess common and distinct mechanisms associated with depression and anxiety.
呼吸性窦性心律不齐（RSA）反映了皮质-边缘控制系统的活动，能够通过副交感神经系统灵活调节心输出量。我们评估了RSA的两个指标，即静息RSA（rRSA）和RSA反应性（ΔRSA），并评估了它们在调节抑郁和焦虑症及其治疗过程中的情绪反应方面的共同和独特作用。我们招募了健康对照组以及患有焦虑症和抑郁症的患者样本，在基线时评估rRSA，并将ΔRSA评估为从基线到观看情感影片时RSA的变化。然后，患者接受了针对特定疾病的认知行为疗法。尽管两组患者的rRSA均低于对照组，但抑郁症状（而非焦虑症状）在不同诊断中均与较低的rRSA和ΔRSA相关。与这些特定于抑郁症的结果相辅相成的是，较好的ΔRSA预示着抑郁症（而非焦虑症）的治疗效果更好。我们的数据证实RSA是情绪和焦虑的跨诊断标志物，支持了最近对跨诊断维度分类系统（HiToP，RDoC）的尝试，并为RSA与抑郁症状及治疗之间更紧密的关联提供了证据。这使得rRSA和ΔRSA成为评估与抑郁和焦虑相关的共同和独特机制的潜在标志物。
