scholarly journals Heart rate variability moderates the effects of COVID-19-related stress and family adversity on emotional problems in adolescents: Testing models of differential susceptibility and diathesis stress

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Jonas G. Miller ◽  
Rajpreet Chahal ◽  
Jaclyn S. Kirshenbaum ◽  
Tiffany C. Ho ◽  
Anthony J. Gifuni ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Heart Rate ◽  
Heart Rate Variability ◽  
Emotional Problems ◽  
Differential Susceptibility ◽  
Adolescent Mental Health ◽  
Family Adversity ◽  
Health Related ◽  
Mental Health Difficulties ◽  
Related Stress

Abstract The COVID-19 pandemic is a unique period of stress, uncertainty, and adversity that will have significant implications for adolescent mental health. Nevertheless, stress and adversity related to COVID-19 may be more consequential for some adolescents’ mental health than for others. We examined whether heart rate variability (HRV) indicated differential susceptibility to mental health difficulties associated with COVID-19 stress and COVID-19 family adversity. Approximately 4 years prior to the pandemic, we assessed resting HRV and HRV reactivity to a well-validated stress paradigm in 87 adolescents. During the pandemic, these adolescents (ages 13–19) reported on their health-related stress and concerns about COVID-19, family adversity related to COVID-19, and their recent emotional problems. The association between COVID-19 stress and emotional problems was significantly stronger for adolescents who previously exhibited higher resting HRV or higher HRV reactivity. For adolescents who exhibited lower resting HRV or HRV augmentation, COVID-19 stress was not associated with emotional problems. Conversely, lower resting HRV indicated vulnerability to the effect of COVID-19 family adversity on emotional problems. Different patterns of parasympathetic functioning may reflect differential susceptibility to the effects of COVID-19 stress versus vulnerability to the effects of COVID-19 family adversity on mental health during the pandemic.

scholarly journals Heart Rate Variability Moderates the Link Between COVID-19 Stress and Emotional Problems in Adolescents: Evidence for Differential Susceptibility

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonas G. Miller ◽  
Rajpreet Chahal ◽  
Jaclyn Schwartz Kirshenbaum ◽  
Tiffany C. Ho ◽  
Anthony J. Gifuni ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Heart Rate ◽  
Heart Rate Variability ◽  
Emotional Problems ◽  
Differential Susceptibility ◽  
Adolescent Mental Health ◽  
Health Related ◽  
Mental Health Difficulties ◽  
Related Stress

The COVID-19 pandemic is a unique period of stress and uncertainty that will have significant implications for adolescent mental health. Nevertheless, stress about COVID-19 may be more consequential for some adolescents’ mental health than for others. We examined whether heart rate variability (HRV) indicated differential susceptibility to mental health difficulties associated with COVID-19 stress. Approximately four years prior to the pandemic, we assessed resting HRV and HRV reactivity to a well-validated stress paradigm in 87 adolescents. During the pandemic, these adolescents (ages 13-19) reported on their health-related stress and concerns about COVID-19 and their recent emotional problems. The association between COVID-19 stress and emotional problems was significantly stronger for adolescents who previously exhibited higher resting HRV or higher HRV reactivity. For adolescents who exhibited lower resting HRV or lower HRV reactivity, COVID-19 stress was not associated with emotional problems. Thus, parasympathetic functioning may reflect differential susceptibility to the effects of COVID-19 stress on mental health during the pandemic.

Analysing Dynamic Change in Children’s Socio-Emotional Development using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire in a large UK Longitudinal Study

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lydia Gabriela Speyer ◽  
Anastasia Ushakova ◽  
Hildigunnur Anna Hall ◽  
Michelle Luciano ◽  
Bonnie Auyeung ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Conduct Problems ◽  
Dynamic Change ◽  
Emotional Problems ◽  
Strengths And Difficulties Questionnaire ◽  
Mental Health Issue ◽  
Childhood And Adolescence ◽  
Peer Problems ◽  
Mental Health Difficulties ◽  
Strengths And Difficulties

Background: Most mental health difficulties have their onset during childhood and adolescence. Many children who suffer from one mental health issue also suffer from at least one comorbid disorder. Autoregressive latent trajectory models with structured residuals (ALT-SR) and multilevel graphical vector autoregression (GVAR) are recent complementary approaches that can help provide new insights into the reciprocal relationships between multiple mental health domains and advance the understanding of the development of comorbidities.Methods: This study uses ALT-SR and multilevel GVAR models to analyse the temporal, contemporaneous and between-person relationships between emotional problems, peer problems, conduct problems, hyperactivity/inattention and prosociality as measured by the parent-reported Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) in 17,478 children taking part in the UK Millennium Cohort Study at ages 3, 5, 7, 11, 14 and 17 years. Results: Results from both the ALT-SR model and the multilevel GVAR model highlight that children’s strengths and difficulties in different domains of psychosocial functioning dynamically influence each other over- and within-time. The ALT-SR model highlighted that hyperactivity/inattention plays a central role in affecting other domains over developmental time while the GVAR model highlighted comparably strong bidirectional relationships between conduct problems and prosociality as well as between emotional problems and peer problems. Both models suggest that most domains are also related to each other over shorter timescales.Conclusion: This study highlights that mental health difficulties influence one another dynamically over time. As illustrated in the domains of the SDQ, these dynamic changes can be modelled using the complementary techniques of ALT-SR or GVAR models, each offering different insights into the nature of comorbidity.

scholarly journals Smart Devices and Wearable Technologies to Detect and Monitor Mental Health Conditions and Stress: A Systematic Review

Sensors ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (10) ◽  
pp. 3461
Author(s):  
Blake Anthony Hickey ◽  
Taryn Chalmers ◽  
Phillip Newton ◽  
Chin-Teng Lin ◽  
David Sibbritt ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Systematic Review ◽  
Heart Rate ◽  
Heart Rate Variability ◽  
Electrodermal Activity ◽  
Smart Devices ◽  
Stress Detection ◽  
Wearable Technologies ◽  
Detection Of Stress ◽  
Anxiety Depression

Recently, there has been an increase in the production of devices to monitor mental health and stress as means for expediting detection, and subsequent management of these conditions. The objective of this review is to identify and critically appraise the most recent smart devices and wearable technologies used to identify depression, anxiety, and stress, and the physiological process(es) linked to their detection. The MEDLINE, CINAHL, Cochrane Central, and PsycINFO databases were used to identify studies which utilised smart devices and wearable technologies to detect or monitor anxiety, depression, or stress. The included articles that assessed stress and anxiety unanimously used heart rate variability (HRV) parameters for detection of anxiety and stress, with the latter better detected by HRV and electroencephalogram (EGG) together. Electrodermal activity was used in recent studies, with high accuracy for stress detection; however, with questionable reliability. Depression was found to be largely detected using specific EEG signatures; however, devices detecting depression using EEG are not currently available on the market. This systematic review highlights that average heart rate used by many commercially available smart devices is not as accurate in the detection of stress and anxiety compared with heart rate variability, electrodermal activity, and possibly respiratory rate.

Resonance breathing is associated with improvements in depression and anxiety symptoms during heart rate variability biofeedback sessions

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adam Khan Pettitt ◽  
Benjamin W Nelson ◽  
Richard Gevirtz ◽  
Paul Lehrer ◽  
Kristian Ranta ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Heart Rate ◽  
Heart Rate Variability ◽  
Resonance Frequency ◽  
Treatment Protocol ◽  
Anxiety Symptoms ◽  
Adjunctive Treatment ◽  
Depression And Anxiety ◽  
Heart Rate Variability Biofeedback ◽  
Item Scale

Heart rate variability (HRV) appears to be a transdiagnostic biomarker for health and disease. Although initial studies using HRV biofeedback (HRVB) to regulate HRV as a potential adjunctive treatment to gold-standard interventions seem promising, more research is needed to determine which aspects of HRVB training provide the most clinical benefits to those suffering from mental health symptoms. In the current study, we sought to investigate whether time spent in resonance, between-person differences in resonance frequency, and/or within-person resonance frequency trajectory across repeated HRVB sessions were related to changes in depression and/or anxiety symptoms during a 12-week digital mental health intervention that contains HRVB as part of the treatment protocol. We used a retrospective cohort study to examine these associations among 387 participants in the Meru Health Program. For depression, we found that average resonance time per HRVB session, but not total time in resonance, was significantly associated with decreased depression as measured by the Patient Health Questionnaire 9-item scale (PHQ-9) across treatment (b=-0.38, 95% CI [-0.76,-0.01], t(377)=-1.99, p=.047). For anxiety symptoms as measured by the Generalized Anxiety Disorder 7-item scale (GAD-7), we found neither association significant. Within-person effects were significant for both depression and anxiety, with steeper slopes of time spent in resonance significantly related to reductions in PHQ-9 and GAD-7 symptoms, respectively. Between-person effects were not significant for either depression or anxiety. Our results demonstrate that improvements in resonance efficiency over time in treatment, independent of how each participant starts, are related to reductions in depression and anxiety symptoms.

Developing a Vision for Therapists Working within Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services: Poised or Paused for Action?

2005 ◽  
Vol 68 (4) ◽  
pp. 181-185 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melanie Harrison ◽  
Kirsty Forsyth
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Mental Health Services ◽  
Health Services ◽  
Occupational Therapy ◽  
Adolescent Mental Health ◽  
Child And Adolescent ◽  
The Face ◽  
Therapy Services ◽  
Mental Health Difficulties ◽  
Practice Development

This opinion piece invites a professional debate on the organisation of Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) occupational therapy in order to deliver the modernisation agenda while sustaining its excellent record for practice development and innovation. In the face of such challenges, there needs to be reflection on whether CAMHS occupational therapy is ‘poised’ or ‘paused’ for action and what strategies would tackle existing challenges and support its growth. The piece puts forward a potential vision involving occupation-focused theory and developing academic and practice partnerships in order to ensure that children with mental health difficulties access occupation-focused, theory-driven and evidence-based occupational therapy services.

Investigating the Effect of Mindfulness Training on Heart Rate Variability in Mental Health Outpatients: A Pilot Study

2014 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
pp. 175-188 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexis Wheeler ◽  
Linley Denson ◽  
Chris Neil ◽  
Graeme Tucker ◽  
Maura Kenny ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Heart Rate ◽  
Heart Rate Variability ◽  
Pilot Study ◽  
Short Form ◽  
Depression Scale ◽  
Cardiac Risk ◽  
Significant Treatment ◽  
Electrocardiographic Monitoring ◽  
Axis I

Depression is associated with increased cardiac morbidity and mortality in people with and without cardiac risk factors, and this relationship is, in part, mediated by heart rate variability (HRV). Increased heart rate and reduced HRV are common in depressed patients, which may explain their higher cardiac risk. This pilot study investigated whether mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) promoted objective changes in (1) HRV, and (2) depressive symptoms and quality of life, in mental health outpatients. Twenty-seven adults meeting criteria for DSM-IV Axis I disorders completed an 8-week MBCT program. Data were collected on three occasions, 8 weeks apart; twice before and once after MBCT. Participants completed the Short Form-36 and the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) at each test period. Heart rate and HRV were measured during electrocardiographic monitoring before and after a cognitive stressor. At baseline, 78% of participants met criteria for depression (CES-D ≥16). Multivariate analyses revealed a significant treatment effect for SF-36 physical summary score and depression (as a dichotomous variable), but not for HRV. This pilot study highlights the immediate psychological and health benefits of MBCT. Low power may have influenced the lack of a finding of an association between HRV and MBCT. However, the feasibility of the study design has been established, and supports the need for larger and longer-term studies of the potential physiological benefits of MBCT for cardiac health.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document