A New Potential Marker for Abnormal Cardiac Physiology in Depression

The purpose of the study was to determine if a nonlinear estimate of dimensional complexity, Pointwise correlation dimension (Pd2), could be used to identify abnormal cardiac physiology associated with depression in primary care outpatients. The subjects were 22 medical controls and 30 general medical outpatients with depression who wore a cardiac monitor for 24 h. There was a significant difference between depressed and control subjects for Pd2 based on the entire cardiac time-series, with depressed subjects exhibiting higher Pd2 values. A cutoff score reflecting high dimensional complexity was selected, and an odds ratio was calculated demonstrating that patients with Pd2 values above the cut-off were 8.8 times more likely to fall in the depressed group than the control group. Additional research is needed to determine if Pd2 is useful for identifying physiological markers of depression.