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Heart rate variability during sleep in detoxified alcohol-dependent males: A comparison with healthy controls
Suhas Ganesha1, Jagadisha Thirthalli, Kesavan Muralidharan
1Department of Psychiatry, National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences, Bangalore, Karnataka, India.
Context:
Alcohol dependence can lead to autonomic neuropathy resulting in increased cardiac morbidity and mortality. This has previously been evaluated using heart-rate variability.
Aims:
We compared sleep heart-rate variability of alcohol-dependent patients with that of healthy controls in this study.
Settings And Design:
This study was conducted at NIMHANS, Bangalore. A case control study design was adopted.
Materials And Methods:
Sleep heart-rate variability of 20 male alcohol-dependent inpatients was recorded on the 5(th) day after detoxification. Sleep heart-rate variability was also recorded in 18 age- and gender-matched healthy controls.
Statistical Analysis:
The groups were compared using t-test for continuous variables and Chi-squared test for discrete variables.
Results:
Both time and frequency domain measures were significantly lower in the patients as compared to the controls, indicating decreased HRV in alcohol-dependent individuals.
Conclusions:
Decreased HRV in alcohol dependence indicates potential autonomic neuropathy.
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