The depression doubles the risk of death in the first decade after diagnosis of coronary heart disease (stroke, heart attack), according to the results of a study presented at the 66th Scientific Congress of the American College of Cardiology.
Researchers at the Intermountain Medical Center (Salt Lake City) in the United States conducted a study with 25,000 patients followed for an average of 10 years following a diagnosis of coronary heart disease. About 15% of patients were diagnosed with depression, a significantly larger proportion than the estimated 7.5-10% of the general population.
“The majority of studies assessing depression following heart disease took place within 30 days of the event,” said Heidi May, a cardiovascular epidemiologist at the Intermountain Medical Center Heart Institute in Salt Lake City, and the lead author of the study.
Depression, a mortality risk factor for heart disease
The study results showed that of the 3,646 participants diagnosed with depression, 50% died during the follow-up period, compared to 38% of the other 20,491 non-depressed patients. These findings reveal that heart patients with depression have a two-fold increased risk of premature death compared to other subjects.
“Our study shows that whether depression emerges in the short term or a few years down the road, it’s a risk factor that should always be assessed,” said Heidi May. “I think the message to get across is that patients with coronary heart disease should be continuously screened for depressionand if they are depressed, they must receive adequate treatment and ongoing monitoring”.
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