New York: March 11: A new study conducted by Columbia University
researchers has found a positive correlation between severe depression and heart
attacks in woman. While the precise nature of the relationship remained
ambiguous, women on antidepressants appeared to be at an increased risk for
sudden cardiac death.
Dr. William Whang, an assistant professor of clinical medicine at Columbia
University Medical Center in New York City said, "We found that women who had
worse depressive symptoms had higher rates of risk factors such as hypertension,
diabetes and smoking.”
The scientists studied 63,000 women. The data was taken from the Nurses Health
Study between 1992 and 2004. Eight percent of these women had confirmation of a
serious depression. However, none of then had signs of any heart disease at the
time of start of the study.
The 12-year study concluded that depressed women were at more than double the
risk to have a sudden cardiac arrest. The death in such cases was
characteristically caused by an irregular heartbeat. Chances of death amongst
such women from other forms of heart disease also increased marginally.
Studies conducted earlier have also established a relationship between
depression and higher death rate of people suffering from heart disease. Whang
observed, "But this was a group of women without heart disease, and that makes
it different."
A possible reason attributed to the findings is that depressed patients tend to
miss out on their medicines, stay inside instead of working out, and on the
whole eat inadequately. In nutshell, they do not take good care of themselves.
All these conditions precipitate a heart related disease.
Whang said of the study, "The biggest clinical implication is that management of
coronary heart disease risk factors may be especially important for those with
depressive symptoms. Taking care of those risk factors can modify the risk for
coronary disease."
Source : Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
