Depression and cardiovascular diseases

Abstract

We first review the asSociations between depression and cardiovascular diseases (CVDs). Then we examine them in the nationally representative Mini‐Finland Health Survey, which covers 8,000 persons. Chronic somatic diseases and mental disorders were diagnosed using standardized methods. Cross‐sectionally, CVDs and neurotic depression were asSociated both before and after adjustment for covariates. The strongest asSociations were observed in the case of severe CVDs. During a 6.6 year follow‐up, the risk of CVD death and coronary death was elevated in depressed persons both with and without CVDs at entry. Much of the cross‐sectional asSociation is probably due to depression caused by CVDs. The outcome of CVD may be poorer in depressed persons. The hypothesis that depression is a cause of CVDs requires further study.

Screening for erectile dysfunction: rationale

“…In a series with 1003 patients, 8 Murphy et al found the relative risk of depression for cardiovascular disease-related death was 2.50 for males and 1.50 for females. In a similar study of over 5000 patients, 9 Aromaa et al reported the relative risk of depression for cardiovascular disease-related death for males was 2.62 and for females was 1.90, in agreement with the ®ndings of Pratt et al, who estimated the relative risk of major depression for MI-related death to be 4.54 in 1551 patients. 10 Depression was identi®ed by Frasure-Smith et al as a signi®cant predictor of mortality (P`0.001) in 222 patients 6 months after MI, even after controlling for the effects of left ventricular dysfunction and a history of previous MI.…”

Life-time history of suicide attempts and coronary artery disease in a community-dwelling elderly population

“…The prevalence of major depression in patients with CAD is about 3-fold higher than in community samples, ranging from 16% to 23% (Schleifer et al, 1989;Frasure-Smith et al, 1993;Gonzales et al, 1996). Prospective epidemiological studies have demonstrated a significant relationship between depression and the incidence of cardiac events in healthy populations (Aromaa et al, 1994;Ford et al, 1998). A recent systematic review (Wulsin et al, 2003) suggests that depressive symptoms constitute a significant and independent risk for the onset of CAD, a risk (1.64) that is greater than the risk conferred by passive smoking (1.25) but less than the risk conferred by active smoking (2.5).…”

Impact of Psychological Factors on the Pathogenesis of Cardiovascular Disease and Implications for Therapy

“…Also, depressive symptoms that are not sufficient in magnitude to meet the criteria for major depression occur at least as commonly among cardiac patients. 2,3 Recent epidemiological studies evaluating the relationship between depression and CAD among healthy [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11] and CAD [12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19] populations consistently demonstrate a significant prospective relationship between the occurrence of major depression episodes and the incidence of cardiac events (Table 1). Two additional findings are notable.…”