Logo: to the web site of Uppsala University

uu.sePublications from Uppsala University
Change search
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf
Investigating heart rate variability measures during pregnancy as predictors of postpartum depression and anxiety: an exploratory study
Uppsala University, Disciplinary Domain of Medicine and Pharmacy, Faculty of Medicine, Department of Women's and Children's Health, Obstetrics and Reproductive Health Research. Uppsala University, WoMHeR (Centre for Women’s Mental Health during the Reproductive Lifespan).ORCID iD: 0000-0003-3094-5497
Uppsala University, Disciplinary Domain of Medicine and Pharmacy, Faculty of Medicine, Department of Women's and Children's Health, Obstetrics and Reproductive Health Research.ORCID iD: 0000-0002-6270-5394
Uppsala University, Disciplinary Domain of Humanities and Social Sciences, Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of Psychology.ORCID iD: 0000-0001-6821-9058
Uppsala University, Disciplinary Domain of Medicine and Pharmacy, Faculty of Medicine, Department of Women's and Children's Health, Medical psychology and care science.ORCID iD: 0000-0003-0937-0887
Show others and affiliations
2024 (English)In: Translational Psychiatry, E-ISSN 2158-3188, Vol. 14, no 1, article id 203Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

Perinatal affective disorders are common, but standard screening measures reliant on subjective self-reports might not be sufficient to identify pregnant women at-risk for developing postpartum depression and anxiety. Lower heart rate variability (HRV) has been shown to be associated with affective disorders. The current exploratory study aimed to evaluate the predictive utility of late pregnancy HRV measurements of postpartum affective symptoms. A subset of participants from the BASIC study (Uppsala, Sweden) took part in a sub-study at pregnancy week 38 where HRV was measured before and after a mild stressor (n = 122). Outcome measures were 6-week postpartum depression and anxiety symptoms as quantified by the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) and the Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI). In total, 112 women were included in a depression outcome analysis and 106 women were included in an anxiety outcome analysis. Group comparisons indicated that lower pregnancy HRV was associated with depressive or anxious symptomatology at 6 weeks postpartum. Elastic net logistic regression analyses indicated that HRV indices alone were not predictive of postpartum depression or anxiety outcomes, but HRV indices were selected as predictors in a combined model with background and pregnancy variables. ROC curves for the combined models gave an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.93 for the depression outcome and an AUC of 0.83 for the anxiety outcome. HRV indices predictive of postpartum depression generally differed from those predictive of postpartum anxiety. HRV indices did not significantly improve prediction models comprised of psychological measures only in women with pregnancy depression or anxiety.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Springer Nature, 2024. Vol. 14, no 1, article id 203
National Category
Psychiatry
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-528440DOI: 10.1038/s41398-024-02909-9ISI: 001222549700001PubMedID: 38744808Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85193207486OAI: oai:DiVA.org:uu-528440DiVA, id: diva2:1859842
Funder
Swedish Research Council, 523 – 2014 – 2342 and 523 – 2014 – 0765Magnus Bergvall Foundation, 2017-02165Available from: 2024-05-22 Created: 2024-05-22 Last updated: 2025-09-19Bibliographically approved
In thesis
1. Exploring Predictive Models of Postpartum Depression and Anxiety Using Non-Invasive Neurophysiological Measures During Pregnancy
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Exploring Predictive Models of Postpartum Depression and Anxiety Using Non-Invasive Neurophysiological Measures During Pregnancy
2025 (English)Doctoral thesis, comprehensive summary (Other academic)
Abstract [en]

Postpartum depression and anxiety are pervasive and debilitating conditions, yet current risk identification is limited to self-report measures. This thesis examines whether noninvasive physiological measures collected during pregnancy improve prediction of postpartum depression (PPD) and anxiety beyond psychosocial screening. Across two prospective Uppsala cohorts (BASIC; 3PAD), heart rate variability (HRV), prepulse inhibition (PPI) of the acoustic startle response, and task-evoked pupil dilation (PD) were assessed in late pregnancy (BASIC) and at both early and late pregnancy (3PAD). Outcome measures were symptoms of depression and anxiety at six weeks postpartum. In Study I, elastic net models combining HRV with psychosocial variables discriminated PPD (AUC 0.93) and anxiety (AUC 0.83), but inclusion of HRV did not significantly improve accuracy beyond psychosocial predictors. In Study II, logistic regression analyses indicated that reduced PPI at 86 dB predicted de novo PPD among women without antenatal depression (AUC 0.81), with slight gains when covariates were added (AUC 0.91), suggesting potential utility for identifying cases missed by symptom-based screening. In Study III, random-forest models showed HRV from two gestational timepoints provided modest but reliable improvements in predicting PPD and state anxiety, with low frequency/high frequency ratio the most informative index. HRV indices added no incremental value for trait anxiety. In Study IV, elastic-net models including PD achieved good discrimination (AUCs 0.88-0.91) but did not outperform psychosocial predictors. Nevertheless, outcome-specific profiles were observed: PPD was linked to blunted early engagement and reduced sustained effort, state anxiety showed heightened early engagement followed by dampened responses across multiple indices, and trait anxiety involved opposing changes in mobilization speed across pregnancy. These patterns suggest that pupil-linked arousal dynamics may differentiate depression and anxiety outcomes, even if they add little predictive power. Overall, antenatal physiological measures were shown to complement psychosocial screening and provide mechanistic insight into perinatal mood vulnerability. While certain indices showed promise, predictive gains were modest and inconsistent, indicating that these measures are not yet ready for clinical application. Larger, externally validated studies are needed to establish their robustness and to determine whether they can be integrated into multiparametric, tiered risk algorithms to support prevention in perinatal care.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Uppsala: Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis, 2025. p. 74
Series
Digital Comprehensive Summaries of Uppsala Dissertations from the Faculty of Medicine, ISSN 1651-6206 ; 2182
Keywords
Postpartum depression, Postpartum anxiety, Perinatal mental health, Pregnancy, Heart rate variability, Prepulse inhibition, Pupil dilation, Neurophysiology, Biomarkers, Predictive modeling
National Category
Psychiatry Gynaecology, Obstetrics and Reproductive Medicine
Research subject
Medical Science
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-567459 (URN)978-91-513-2598-9 (ISBN)
Public defence
2025-11-07, Universitetshuset Sal IV, Biskopsgatan 3, 753 10, Uppsala, 13:00 (English)
Opponent
Supervisors
Available from: 2025-10-17 Created: 2025-09-19 Last updated: 2025-10-17

Open Access in DiVA

fulltext(1022 kB)65 downloads
File information
File name FULLTEXT01.pdfFile size 1022 kBChecksum SHA-512
361786efe95460463eaf448cac53f56a90aac6f01d3e01ed7b4f1d2fa3331e82d370e9bff199e776931cc935cf113eef03b83a9c4b2ed1c9162fabe5cea7c06d
Type fulltextMimetype application/pdf

Other links

Publisher's full textPubMedScopus

Authority records

Eriksson, AllisonKimmel, Mary C.Furmark, TomasWikman, AnnaSkalkidou, AlkistisFrick, AndreasFransson, Emma

Search in DiVA

By author/editor
Eriksson, AllisonKimmel, Mary C.Furmark, TomasWikman, AnnaGrueschow, MarcusSkalkidou, AlkistisFrick, AndreasFransson, Emma
By organisation
Obstetrics and Reproductive Health ResearchWoMHeR (Centre for Women’s Mental Health during the Reproductive Lifespan)Department of PsychologyMedical psychology and care sciencePsychiatry
In the same journal
Translational Psychiatry
Psychiatry

Search outside of DiVA

GoogleGoogle Scholar
Total: 65 downloads
The number of downloads is the sum of all downloads of full texts. It may include eg previous versions that are now no longer available

doi
pubmed
urn-nbn

Altmetric score

doi
pubmed
urn-nbn
Total: 358 hits
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf