Quintana DS et al. – Alcohol dependence is associated with reduced heart rate variability, an effect associated with a medium effect size. Findings highlight the importance of monitoring alcohol–dependent patients for cardiac disease and emphasize the need for cardiovascular risk reduction strategies in these patients.

• Studies comparing short-term HRV in alcohol-dependent populations and healthy controls who were nondependent were considered for meta-analysis.
• Only studies reporting findings from participants without cardiovascular disease were included in the analysis.

• Meta-analyses were based on 6 articles that fulfilled inclusion criteria, comprising a total of 177 alcohol-dependent participants and 216 nondependent participants.
• Alcohol-dependent participants displayed reduced HRV (Hedges' g = -0.6, p > 0.001) in comparison with nondependent participants.
• No differences were observed between the summary effect sizes obtained from different HRV domains (Q = 1.19, p = 0.55).