Multidimensional autonomic dynamics are associated with clinical improvement across psychiatric patients
- 1Azrieli Faculty of Medicine, Bar-Ilan University, Safed, Israel
Abstract
Psychiatric symptoms are heterogeneous and change over time, yet clinical assessment relies largely on discrete subjective symptom assessments. We examined whether affective reactivity and autonomic dynamics relate to current clinical state and subsequent symptom change in a transdiagnostic psychiatric sample. Patients were assessed at baseline using an adaptive reward-based mood modulation task (n = 100) and heart rate variability recording (n = 57), with longitudinal clinical data available approximately 4 weeks later (n=34). Patients showed reduced positive affective reactivity and altered linear and nonlinear HRV. Positive affective reactivity was primarily associated with concurrent affective symptoms, whereas LF/HF ratio, Lyapunov exponent and Approximate Entropy were prospectively associated with subsequent symptom improvement. Integrating these HRV features into a multidimensional index yielded a stronger association with symptom change beyond baseline cross-sectional symptom severity, suggesting that this index may provide relevant information about clinical trajectories during treatment.
Related
- Bridging the Gap: A Quality Improvement Project Improving Communication Between Community-Based Inpatient and Outpatient Psychiatric Providers
- State-Transition Dynamics in the HR--Deceleration Capacity Feature Space: Passive Assessment of Autonomic Dysfunction from 24-Hour Heart Rate
- Attentional Experience, Autonomic Function and Network Dynamics During the ISAAA Observational Stage of Mindfulness Training
- Cryptococcal meningitis-associated cerebrovascular injury presenting with sequential multifocal cerebral infarctions and prominent autonomic dysfunction in a non-HIV patient: a case report and focused literature review.
- Common psychiatric treatments alter affective dynamics
BibTeX
@misc{mauda2026multidimensional,
title = {{Multidimensional autonomic dynamics are associated with clinical improvement across psychiatric patients}},
author = {N. Mauda and K. Vasilchenko and N. Danan and I. Darawshy and S. Galin and S. Sheikh and R. Naim and V. Zlidennyy and L. Izakson and H. Keren},
howpublished = {medRxiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.64898/2026.09.15.26363091},
url = {https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.15.26363091v1},
note = {CC BY-NC-ND},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Multidimensional autonomic dynamics are associated with clinical improvement across psychiatric patients
AU - N. Mauda
AU - K. Vasilchenko
AU - N. Danan
AU - I. Darawshy
AU - S. Galin
AU - S. Sheikh
AU - R. Naim
AU - V. Zlidennyy
AU - L. Izakson
AU - H. Keren
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/15
PB - medRxiv
DO - 10.64898/2026.09.15.26363091
UR - https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.15.26363091v1
AB - Psychiatric symptoms are heterogeneous and change over time, yet clinical assessment relies largely on discrete subjective symptom assessments. We examined whether affective reactivity and autonomic dynamics relate to current clinical state and subsequent symptom change in a transdiagnostic psychiatric sample. Patients were assessed at baseline using an adaptive reward-based mood modulation task (n = 100) and heart rate variability recording (n = 57), with longitudinal clinical data available approximately 4 weeks later (n=34). Patients showed reduced positive affective reactivity and altered linear and nonlinear HRV. Positive affective reactivity was primarily associated with concurrent affective symptoms, whereas LF/HF ratio, Lyapunov exponent and Approximate Entropy were prospectively associated with subsequent symptom improvement. Integrating these HRV features into a multidimensional index yielded a stronger association with symptom change beyond baseline cross-sectional symptom severity, suggesting that this index may provide relevant information about clinical trajectories during treatment.
ER -