The role of maternal cardiac vagal control in the association between depressive symptoms and gestational hypertension.
Date
2016-05
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Elsevier
Abstract
Reduced cardiac vagal control, indexed by relatively lower high-frequency heart rate variability (HF-HRV), is implicated in depressed mood and hypertensive disorders among non-pregnant adults whereas research in pregnancy is limited. This study examined whether maternal HF-HRV during pregnancy mediates the association between depressed mood and gestational hypertension. Depressive symptoms (Edinburgh Depression Scale) and HF-HRV were measured during early (M = 14.9 weeks) and late (M = 32.4 weeks) pregnancy in 287 women. Gestational hypertension was determined by chart review. Depressive symptoms were associated with less HF-HRV (b = -0.02, p =.001). There was an indirect effect of depressed mood on gestational hypertension through late pregnancy HF-HRV (b = 0.04, 95% CI 0.0038, 0.1028) after accounting for heart rate. These findings suggest cardiac vagal control is a possible pathway through which prenatal depressed mood is associated with gestational hypertension, though causal ordering remains uncertain.
Description
Author's accepted manuscript deposited according to Elsevier sharing policies: http://www.elsevier.com/about/company-information/policies/policy-faq (December 1st, 2016)
Keywords
cardiac vagal control, high-frequency heart rate variability, heart rate, depressive symptoms, gestational hypertension, pregnancy
Citation
Rouleau, C. R., Tomfohr, L. M., Campbell, T. S., Letourneau, N., O’Beirne, M., *Giesbrecht, G.F. & the APrON Study Team. (2016). The role of maternal cardiac vagal control in the association between depressive symptoms and gestational hypertension. Biological Psychology, 117, 32-42.