Treating Depression With Heart Rate Variability Feedback

Main Category: Depression
Also Included In: Mental Health
Article Date: 02 Apr 2008 - 2:00 PST

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Described as a novel, alternative approach to the treatment of major depression, heart rate variability is the subject of a special issue published in the latest Biofeedback.

Autonomic nervous system dysfunction is thought to play a significant role in depression. Prior research shows that individuals suffering from depression often show decreased vagal tone, increased heart rate, fatigue, sleep disturbance, and sympathetic arousal.

Heart rate variability biofeedback has been shown to increase vagus nerve activity and improve homeostatic control over blood pressure. The treatment involves training subjects to adjust their breathing rate to a frequency that is usually slower than normal breathing and that maximizes smooth orderly variations in heart rate.

It is critical to offer a variety of treatments for depression so that individuals can be presented with a variety of treatment options if the treatment currently being used is not effective, says the study author Maria Karavidas. A treatment focusing on the physiological process potentially removes some of the stigma associated with depression and enables patients to become active participants, thereby returning some level of control to patients.

Heart Rate Variability Biofeedback for Major Depression
Maria Karavidas
Biofeedback, 2008; Vol. 36(1):18-21
To read the entire study, click here .

Biofeedback is a quarterly journal of the Association for Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback (AAPB).

Association for Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback .