Depression Linked to Heart Disease Deaths

A new study has linked depression as a high risk for heart disease.

Heart attacks have a variety of causes, the most common being a high cholesterol diet, smoking, and being overweight. However, the wellbeing of our body is closely linked with the state of our mental health. A new study has found that depression can pose as many dangers to your heart as much as all other more common factors.

For the study, a team of researchers from Germany analyzed the health records of more than 3,400 men from Europe, with ages between 45 to 74. All the participants were followed up to 10 years. After the extensive analysis, the researchers observed that death from various types of cardiovascular disease during the study was very strongly associated with the mental health state of the patients just as much as it was affected by other heart disease factors.

More specifically, the researchers looked at how depression, determined by a checklist of several mood symptoms including fatigue and anxiety, affected the rate of heart disease in the participants. They found that depression accounted for around 15 percent of all deaths from coronary heart and cardiovascular disease. The other high risk factors like cholesterol and obesity a 8 to 21 percent chance of death, while diabetes only had 5 to 8 percent of heart disease death.

Only smoking and high blood pressure accounted for more heart disease deaths than depression. The findings of the study were published in the journal Atherosclerosis and revealed that patients with suffering from depression and exhaustion have a higher chance of dying from heart disease, despite not having any of the other risk factors.

The researchers reached this conclusion after the results for each variable had been adjusted for all the other risk factors. This suggests that depression is independently linked to heart disease death, and not caused in combination with other risk factors.

The researchers recommend that patients with classic heart disease factors should undergo routine mental-health screenings. Depression must be addressed as serious as all other risk factors, despite the current stigma that patients face. Furthermore, treating depression can have a much more noticeable effect and sooner than treating other risk factors.

What do you think about the study’s findings?

Image source: Pixabay

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Karen Jackson

Karen Jackson has always been passionate about technology. All the way through high-school she immersed herself in computers and web-design. Her ambitious nature helped her become a pro in Adobe Photoshop only by watching online videos and working with the program herself. This is also the program that she mostly uses in the creation of websites at her work-place. Technological innovation and gadgets that push the boundaries of what we are comfortable with have always fascinated her, so expect to see some weird gadget reviews coming from her.