Depression After Heart Attack Increases Hospital Readmission Risk

People who develop depression following a heart attack (myocardial infarction) or chest pain (angina) have an elevated risk of cardiac death or hospital readmission over the following year.

A new study says that people who develop depression following a heart attack or chest pain (angina) have an elevated risk of cardiac death.

For the study, the researchers recruited patients hospitalised for ACS, and evaluated them for both lifetime and current depression. Patients were then followed for one year, with additional assessments of depression and cardiac health.

Heart Attack - Overview
Heart attack is the death of the heart muscle due to loss of blood supply. Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States. Other names for heart attack include acute myocardial infarction, coronary thrombosis, and coronary occlusion.

Specifically, they discovered that cardiovascular outcome was not associated with prior or existing depression at the time of hospitalization.

On contrary, even after controlling for traditional cardiac risk factors such as age, gender, and smoking status, depression that developed in the month after the ACS event increased the odds of cardiac readmission or death by 7 times.

John H. Krystal, M.D., Editor of Biological Psychiatry and affiliated with both Yale University School of Medicine and the VA Connecticut Healthcare System, said: "Depression may be a 'canary in the coal mine,' a relatively early sign of an inflammatory disease process that contributes to coronary artery disease and other medical illnesses."

Chest pain – Causes – Risk Factors – Symptoms – Diagnosis – Treatment
Ask any one who has experienced intense chest pain and they will vouch for the fact that it was the most frightening experience of their life!

"The current study suggests that depression may be heterogeneous with respect to its association with inflammatory disease processes, so it will be

very important to develop biomarkers, i.e., objective and quantitative tests that can identify the subtype of depression that is a component of systemic disease processes," he added.

Animation on Coronary Artery Bypass Surgery (CABG)
Coronary Artery Bypass Surgery (CABG) is performed to restore the blood supply to areas of heart that have been reduced or has no blood supply due to blockage in the artery.

enior authors Gordon Parker and Catherine Owen said: "If confirmed, [this finding] has the potential to greatly enhance the ability of health professionals to identify and allocate resources to those patients who are at the greatest risk. This finding also has the potential to shed light on the mechanisms by which post-ACS depression is associated with reduced survival; an area that is still very poorly understood."

The study is published in the October 15th issue of Biological Psychiatry.

Animation of heart attack symptoms
Heart attack can cause symptoms such as Chest pain or discomfort, Shortness of breath and pain in neck, back, arm, or shoulder and is due to blockage of blood supply to the heart muscles

Source-ANI
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