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Updated: Jul 3, 2026

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Published on: June 23, 2023
Reduced cardio-respiratory coupling in acute alcohol withdrawal
Karl-Jürgen Bär1, Michael Karl Boettger, Steffen Schulz
1Department of Psychiatry, Friedrich-Schiller-University, Philosophenweg 3, Jena, Germany. Karl-Juergen.Baer@med.uni-jena.de
Background:
Chronic alcoholism represents a risk factor for cardiac arrhythmias. One underlying mechanism is a sympathetically dominated autonomic imbalance. This is especially apparent during acute withdrawal from alcohol. Since linear analysis of heart rate variability may not be entirely adequate to detect such autonomic dysfunction in acute alcohol withdrawal, we applied novel non-linear parameters and measures for cardio-respiratory coupling.
Methods:
20 patients suffering from acute alcohol withdrawal syndrome and 20 controls were included. For patients, heart rate and respiration were recorded on admission, after medication and at discharge. From these data, complexity measures (symbolic dynamics, approximate entropy) of heart rate modulation and respiration as well as parameters for cardio-respiratory coupling (coherence, cross-approximate entropy) which relate to vagal function were calculated.
Results:
Heart rate modulation was significantly less complex in patients acutely admitted for alcohol withdrawal. Furthermore, coupling between beat-to-beat (RR) intervals and respiration time series was significantly diminished. Of the parameters assessed, cross-approximate entropy showed a trend for correlation with symptom severity.
Conclusion:
These data indicate diminished vagal function in acute alcohol withdrawal. Applying the methods described thus allows a sensitive detection of vagal neuropathy in this disease.
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