Depression and mortality in coronary heart disease

January 01, 0001

Depression and mortality in coronary heart disease

Depression has been linked with poor outcomes in many conditions. These European researchers examined depressive symptoms and coronary heart disease (CHD) in middle-aged adults using a prospective population-based cohort study of middle-aged men and women from the British Whitehall II study (n=5936). Four risk-factor groups were created based on the depressive symptoms and CHD status.

The researchers found: "The age-adjusted and sex-adjusted hazard ratios for death from all causes were 1.67 for participants with only CHD, 2.10 for those with only depressive symptoms and 4.99 for those with both CHD and depressive symptoms when compared to participants without either condition. The two latter risk-factor groups remained at increased risk after adjustments for relevant confounders. The relative excess risk due to the interaction between depressive symptoms and CHD for all-cause mortality was 3.58, showing some evidence of an additive interaction. A similar pattern was also observed for cardiovascular death."

The researchers concluded: "This study provides evidence that depressive symptoms are associated with an increased risk of all-cause and cardiovascular death and that this risk is particularly marked in depressive participants with co-morbid CHD."

Depressive symptoms are associated with significantly increased risk of mortality, especially in patients with coronary disease

For the full abstract, click here.

Heart 96(20): 1645-1650, 15 October 2010 © 2010 BMJ Publishing Group Ltd & British Cardiovascular Society
Effects of depressive symptoms and coronary heart disease and their interactive associations on mortality in middle-aged adults: the Whitehall II cohort study. Hermann Nabi, Martin J Shipley, Jussi Vahtera, et al. Correspondence to Hermann Nabi: [email protected]

Category: K. Circulatory, P. Psychological. Keywords: depression, coronary heart disease, middle-age, mortality, Whitehall II, prospective cohort study, journal watch.
Synopsis edited by Dr Paul Schaefer, Toledo, Ohio. Posted on Global Family Doctor 9 November 2010

Pearls are an independent product of the Cochrane primary care group and are meant for educational use and not to guide clinical care.

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