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Higher heart rate, blood pressure increases risk for psychiatric disorders in men

Higher resting heart rate and blood pressure were associated with increased risk for obsessive-compulsive disorder, schizophrenia and anxiety disorders in Swedish men, according to recent findings.

“The resting heart rate is an easy-to-measure clinical variable indexing cardiac autonomic nervous system activity and is known to predict the health and lifespan of an individual. In contrast to the confirmed associations with somatic health, the link between [resting heart rate] and psychiatric problems is less clear,” Antti Latvala, PhD, of Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, and colleagues wrote. “An accelerated heart rate during panic attacks is a core symptom of panic disorder, and an elevated [resting heart rate] in patients with schizophrenia was suggested already in early studies. More recent studies have reported an elevated [resting heart rate] in patients with major depression, [PTSD], generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, or psychotic disorders. Despite these suggestive findings, studies have often been limited by small and selected samples, and the associations between [resting heart rate] and different psychiatric disorders have not been studied systematically.”

To assess associations between cardiac autonomic function, as indicated by resting heart rate and blood pressure, and psychiatric disorders among men, researchers conducted a longitudinal register-based study of Swedish men whose resting heart rate (n = 1,039,443) and blood pressure (n = 1,555,979) were measured at a mean age of 18.3 years from 1969 to 2010 with follow-up data available through 2013.

Men with resting heart rates higher than 82 beats per minute were 69% more likely to develop obsessive-compulsive disorder; 21% more likely to develop schizophrenia; and 18% more likely to develop an anxiety disorder, compared with men with a resting heart rate lower than 62 beats per minute.

Researchers found similar associations for systolic/diastolic blood pressure.

Conversely, lower resting heart rate and lower systolic blood pressure were associated with substance use disorders and violence.

“In a large and representative sample of men, higher [resting heart rate] and [blood pressure] in late adolescence were associated with subsequent diagnoses of OCD, schizophrenia, and anxiety disorders, whereas lower [resting heart rate] and [blood pressure] were associated with subsequent diagnoses of [substance use disorders] and violent criminality. These associations should be confirmed in other longitudinal studies, and the underlying mechanisms should be studied with more detailed measures of autonomic functioning and designs that can more clearly elucidate causal processes,” the researchers concluded. – by Amanda Oldt

Disclosure: Latvala reports no relevant financial disclosures. Please see the study for a full list of relevant financial disclosures.