Depression A Dangerous Risk For Heart Patients
A major medical research study released on Monday indicates that heart patients who develop depression are at a significantly increased risk of heart failure.
This is the first study to specifically examine the risks that chronic depression poses for heart failure. “Our data suggest that depression is an important and emerging risk factor for heart failure among patients with coronary heart disease,” says Heidi May of Intermountain Medical Center in Utah, whose study was published in the most recent edition of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
According to the American Heart Association, heart failure is a chronic illness in which the heart steadily loses its ability to pump blood. It affects some 550,000 Americans each year with medical costs estimated at around $35 billion annually.
In the study, May and her colleagues examined nearly 14,000 patients with clogged arteries who were not suffering from heart failure or depression at the time of their diagnosis. The patients were then tracked until they either developed heart failure or died.
Among the 1,377 patients who did develop depression after their diagnosis, researchers found that their chances for developing heart failure were dramatically higher than those who did not suffer from depression. Non-depressed patients had an average heart failure rate of 3.6 percent per 100 people, while that statistic more than quadrupled to 16.4 percent for depressed patients.
Although many of those patients who suffered from depression were prescribed antidepressants, this did not seem to have any effect in reducing their risk of heart failure.
“This finding may indicate that antidepressants may not be able to alter the physical or behavioral risks associated with depression and heart failure, despite a potential improvement in depressive symptoms,” added May.
Other studies have shown that heart patients suffering from depression frequently stop taking their heart medications and are less likely than non-depressed patients to stick with a regimen of exercise and healthy foods.
Depression is known to have numerous physiological effects, including decreased heart rate and an increase in blood factors that can lead to elevated rates of unhealthy clotting.
May summarized the report by saying that though antidepressants may help a patient’s mood, they don’t seem to help at all in the physical struggle against heart failure.
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