Hostility and Depression Ups Heart Risk

Hostility and depression appear to act together in a complex way to elevate inflammatory proteins that act as a heart disease risk factor, a U.S. study found.

Jesse Stewart of Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis and colleagues examined associations of depressive symptoms and hostility with blood levels of two inflammatory proteins — interleukin-6 and C-reactive protein — which are predictive of future heart disease.

The study of 300 healthy men and women ages 50 to 70, published in Psychosomatic Medicine, said that hostility enhances inflammatory processes relevant to heart disease only in the presence of depressive symptoms.

In our study, we looked at depression and hostility simultaneously, and we found that the relationship of these negative emotions to inflammatory markers is more complex and much stronger than depression or hostility individually, Stewart said in a statement.

Depression and hostility tend to co-occur within individuals, Stewart added.