Monday, March 9, 2009
Depression linked to cardiac death
Healthy women with severe depression have double the risk of sudden cardiac death, as well as higher risk for fatal coronary heart disease.
Depression and heart disease are linked by cardiovascular risk factors such as high blood pressure, diabetes, high cholesterol and smoking, which are more common among severely depressed women. Possible explanations could be autonomic dysfunction, higher resting heart rates and reduced heart rate variability.
Researchers prospectively studied 63,469 women from the Nurses Health Study with no evidence of prior heart disease or stroke between 1992 and 2004. They used self-reported symptoms of depression and antidepressant use, and then examined those with the most severe symptoms on a mental health index or those regularly using antidepressants. They reported their results in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
Low mental health index scores were associated with an increased risk of heart disease, with a hazard ratio of 1.5 after controlling for other risk factors. Sudden coronary death risk was 3.3 times greater in subjects who took antidepressants, more so than the mental health index scores, causing an editorial writer to raise the specter of needing further research into this drug class while emphasizing that the benefits outweigh the risk. As usual, one study raises more questions to answer. In the meantime, doctors should closely monitor patients with depression for risk factors for coronary heart disease.
Labels: cardiology, depression, heart, heart disease, heart failure
posted by Ryan DuBosar at
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