People diagnosed with depression in early or middle age are at increased risk for developing coronary heart disease
A large-scale Swedish study suggests that
people who are diagnosed with depression, especially between 25
and 50 years of age, are at increased risk for future coronary heart
disease, according to an article in the December issue of the American
Journal of Preventive Medicine.
Researchers from the Karolinska Institute,
Center for Family and Community Medicine, Huddinge, Sweden, examined
complete hospital discharge records for all patients in Sweden from
1987 to 2001.
After identifying a total of 44,826 cases
of first hospital admissions for depression (19,620 men and 25,206
women) in the Swedish family coronary heart disease database, they
found that 1,916 developed coronary heart disease. By combining
these records with an extensive registry of Swedish residents, risk
estimates by age, gender, geographic region and socioeconomic status
could be calculated.
Across all age and gender groups, patients
diagnosed with depression were about 1.5 times more likely to develop
coronary heart disease than patients with no diagnosis of depression.
In the youngest age group, 25 to 39, the risk ratio was about 3.
Kristina Sundquist, MD, PhD, wrote “The present study showed that
young to middle aged people hospitalized for depression had a high
risk of developing coronary heart disease. Primary healthcare teams
meet patients with depression, and it is important that they treat
depression as an additional individual and independent coronary
heart disease risk factor. Patients with clinical depression should
be given not only short-term treatment, but also maintenance therapy
to prevent relapses and recurrences of depression.”
|