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Depression After Heart Attack
RB Williams - Circulation, 2011 - Am Heart Assoc1. Correspondence to Redford B. Williams, MD, Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Professor of Medicine, Professor of Psychology, and Director, Behavioral Medicine Research Center, Box 3926, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC ...
Depression is 3 times more common in patients after a heart attack than in the general population, with 15% to 20% of heart attack victims qualifying for a diagnosis of major depressive disorder, and a far greater proportion experiencing increased levels of depressive symptoms. This comes as no surprise, given that major life stressors are known to contribute to the development of depression, and a heart attack certainly qualifies as such a stressor. Depression after a heart attack is bad not only because of the accompanying emotional distress and suffering; it also increases one’s risk of having another heart attack or dying over the ensuing months and years. Listed in Table 1 are several characteristics that have been found in depressed persons that could account for a poorer prognosis after a heart attack.
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