Heart failure associated with depression

Researchers have confirmed that there is a connection between the magnitude of depressive symptoms and both the quality of life of heart failure patients and also the frequency of heart attacks and the prospect of survival in these patients.

Kyoung Suk Lee, PhD, of the University of Kentucky at Lexington reported these results from a prospective, longitudinal study of 265 patients with  a confirmed diagnosis of heart failure. She measured health-related quality of life and the extent of depression symptoms with known validated scales of measurement.

Generally speaking, 29 percent of the patients studied suffered from clinically significant depression symptoms. Patients were followed for about one year. Study results showed that more severe depression was associated with a deterioration of health-related quality of life. Depression severity was also associated with cardiac events.

The relationship between heart disease and depression has aroused considerable interest and research among medical scientists for several decades now. Many studies have demonstrated a statistical connection between these two conditions. It is also known that there are naturally occurring chemicals in the body, such as cortisol, whose presence in excessive amounts has been correlated with both depression and heart disease.

Source: MedPage Today