Controlled Clinical Study Of Acupuncturing On The Effect Of Heart Rate Variability In Patients With Generalized Anxiety Disorder

Objective To observe the difference of heart rate variability between patients with generalized anxiety disorder and healthy people,and then explore the characteristic of the autonomic nervous system of the patients with heart rate variability.In addition,to observe the instant effect of acupuncture on heart rate variability in patients with generalized anxiety disorder and healthy people,which will provide objective basis for the study of acupuncture treatment of generalized anxiety disorder in the clinical work.Methods The study included 30 cases of generalized anxiety disorder patients and 30 healthy volunteers.All the people were installed the dynamic ECG,and recording starts after successful placement,and then analysis the recorded ECG data using the MARS Holter analysis software,after analysis of the resulting data,observe the changes of the frequency domain HRV indexes LF,HF,LF/HF both of the two different groups.After quiet lying 10 minutes,both of people in the two groups will receive the same acupuncture treatment which will last.30 minutes.After the needling,people need to continue lying 10 minutes.Finally,remove the instrument.Then the data of LF,HF,LF/HF before,during and after the acupuncture therapy were recorded and statistically analyzed.Results The general information of the two subjects,like gender and age,before treatment had no significant difference.Before treatment,the frequency domain indexes of LF,HF and LF/HF of the patients with generalized anxiety disorder are higher than the healthy control group,and the difference of LF values were statistically significant(P<0.05).So the two groups in the frequency domain indicators are not comparable.Compared to before acupuncture,the values of LF and LF/HF were significantly decreased(P<0.05)in and after the acupuncture therapy,however the HF value were significantly higher(P<0.05).Compared with acupuncture treatment process,the values of LF and LF/HF were significantly increased(P<0.05)after the acupuncture therapy,but still below the level before acupuncture.The HF value dropped slightly after the needling,but no statistically significant(P>0.05).In and after the acupuncture therapy,the values of LF and LF/HF were decreased significantly(P<0.05)as compared to pre-needling,at the same time,the value of HF was increased significantly(P<0.05).Compared with acupuncture treatment process,the values of LF and LF/HF were decreased and the value of HF was increased,but the difference has no statistically significant(P>0.05).Conclusion Sympathetic nerve activity of patients with GAD was significantly higher than healthy people,suggesting that the heart rate variability of GAD patients was abnormal.Acupuncture can affect the heart rate variability both of the healthy people and patients with GAD.Acupuncture can inhibit the sympathetic nervous excitability and increase the excitability of the vagus nerve,and the effect of acupuncture works mostly by influencing the sympathetic nervous.