Citation

Dale LP, Kolacz J, Mazmanyan J, Leon KG, Johonnot K, Bossemeyer Biernacki N, Porges SW. Front. Psychiatry 2022; 13: e841749.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2022, Frontiers Media)

DOI

10.3389/fpsyt.2022.841749

PMID

35722547

PMCID

PMC9201111

Abstract

Childhood maltreatment history may influence autonomic reactivity and recovery to stressors. Hypothetically, the maltreatment history may contribute to a retuned autonomic nervous system that is reflected in a novel metric, vagal efficiency (VE), designed to assess the functional efficiency of vagal cardioinhibitory pathways on heart rate. We explored whether VE mediates the well-documented relationship between maltreatment history and psychiatric symptoms. We also investigated the relationship between measures of autonomic regulation in response to the physical and emotional challenges and psychiatric symptoms. Participants (n = 167) completed self-report measures of psychiatric symptoms and had continuous beat-to-beat heart rate monitored before, during, and after physical and emotional stressors. Participants with maltreatment histories exhibited lower VE, which mediated the association of maltreatment history and the psychiatric symptoms of anxiety and depression. Consistent with prior literature, there were significant associations between maltreatment history and autonomic reactivity (i.e., heart rate and respiratory sinus arrhythmia) during emotional and physical challenges; however, when VE was entered as a covariate these associations were no longer statistically significant. Blunted VE may reflect a neural pathway through which maltreatment retunes autonomic regulation and provides a neurophysiological platform that increases mental health risk.

Language: en

Keywords

PTSD; maltreatment; heart rate variability; Polyvagal Theory; respiratory sinus arrhythmia; vagal efficiency