Heart Disease and Depression: What's the Link? Huntington NY

Doctors aren't sure why, but depression is much more common in heart disease patients than in the general population. In fact, people with heart disease run twice the risk of depression, according to a study published in the April 2009 issue of the American Journal of Medical Genetics Part B: Neuropsychiatric Genetics and reported in Science Daily.

Researchers are finding that genetic variations may contribute to depression in heart disease patients. The genes related to the body's blood vessels may be a predictor of depression in these patients, according to the study, which is  the first large-scale genetic study.

"Depression can significantly impact quality of life for heart disease patients and can increase the risk for additional cardiac events or even death," says lead author Jeanne M. McCaffery, Ph.D., of the Weight Control and Diabetes Research Center at The Miriam Hospital in Canada, which collaborated on the research with the Montreal Heart Institute, University of Montreal and McGill University. "Although it's too early to begin to speculate about the possible clinical implications of these findings, it's intriguing to think that there may be a genetic explanation as to why people with heart disease are more susceptible to depression."

This study targeted 977 patients with heart disease who had either a 50 percent or higher blockage in at least one major heart artery or who had suffered a heart attack. The depressive symptoms were measured using a standardized self-reported questionnaire...

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