うつ病の重症度が心疾患リスクを増大させる(Poster presentation Sa3055)

うつ病の重症度と心血管疾患との強力な関連が認められた
Strong link found between level of severity of depression and cardiovascular disease
うつ病の重症度が心疾患または脳卒中の発症率を上昇させる可能性がある、との予備研究の結果が American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions 2019 で発表された。米国国民健康栄養調査（NHANES）において解答されたうつ病アンケートを用いて、うつ病と診断された成人11,000人超が同定された。そのうちの約1,200人が、心疾患または脳卒中の診断を受けている、と報告した。うつ病と非致死性心疾患および脳卒中との関連を定量化した解析によると、うつ病レベル（軽症、中等症、やや重症または重症） が上がる毎に、非致死性心疾患または脳卒中の確率が24% 上昇した。
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The severity of a person's depression may increase their odds of having heart disease or stroke, according to preliminary research presented at the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions 2019 — November 16-18 in Philadelphia.

"Cardiovascular diseases are impacted by and related to a variety of aspects of health and well-being including mental health," said study author Yosef M. Khan, M.D., Ph.D., M.P.H., national director of Health Informatics and Analytics for the American Heart Association in Dallas, Texas. "We found that the level of depression was strongly tied to living with heart disease and stroke, even after accounting for other factors that could impact risk, including the American Heart Association's Life's Simple 7 and variables of age, income, education, sex and race/ethnicity."

Researchers examined the connection between depression and non-fatal heart disease such as heart failure, coronary heart disease, angina, myocardial infarction or stroke in U.S. adults age 20 years and older. Using depression questionnaires completed in National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (NHANES), more than 11,000 adults diagnosed with depression were identified. This represents 231 million adults in the general population. Of these, about 1,200 people (translated to 20 million in the general population) said they had been diagnosed with heart disease or stroke.

An analysis to quantify the link for depression and non-fatal heart disease and stroke found that the odds increased by 24% with each additional level increase of depression — mild, moderate, moderately severe or severe. 

"The implications of such an increase are vast," Khan said. "By understanding the relationship and degree of impact we can properly identify, prevent, treat and create policies and strategies to help decrease cardiovascular diseases and improve lives by tackling mental health and heart disease together."

More studies are needed to determine if depression causes cardiovascular disease or cardiovascular disease causes depression, according to the authors.

Co-authors are Remy Poudel, M.P.H., M.S., and Kim Stitzel, M.S., R.D. Author disclosures are in the abstract.