| Men
who are depressed before coronary bypass surgery are more likely to
have poor cardiac health six months afterward Men who are depressed before their coronary artery bypass surgery are more likely to be rehospitalized, have chest pain, or report reduced quality of life 6 months afterward than men who do not have baseline depression, according to an article in the January/February issue of Psychosomatic Medicine. The research may help to explain why 15 percent of bypass patients report little or no improvement in their health after the surgical procedure. Matthew M. Burg, Ph.D., and his American colleagues gathered surgical, medical, and psychological data on 89 older men before their surgery and 6 months postoperatively. Of the 89 participants, 25 men were significantly clinically depressed before their bypass surgery. Rates of hospitalization for myocardial infarction or coronary artery disease were higher among bypass patients with preoperative depression. Full physical and mental recovery also eluded many of these patients, who reported continued surgical pain and failure to return to normal activities at the 6-month follow-up interview. "Of the 25 patients scoring positive for depression, 6 were hospitalized after the original surgery for cardiac reasons compared with only 2 hospitalizations for cardiac reasons among the 64 patients scoring negative for depression," Burg said. Patients who were depressed before surgery were also more likely to be depressed after surgery, although their psychiatric symptoms were often unrecognized and untreated. "The common thinking is that although depression is prevalent in patients during acute cardiac events, the depressive symptoms quickly dissipate after the event resolves. These data would argue to the contrary," said Burg. The findings suggest the importance of psychiatric
evaluation and treatment both to help patients improve their quality
of life and to eliminate possible psychiatric contributions to negative
cardiac outcomes. |