In a nutshell
This article investigated the association between major depression and the development of ischemic heart disease.
Some background
It has been established that major depression is often related to ischemic heart disease. However, there is still a need to clarify the potential role of depression as an independent risk factor for ischemic heart disease. Ischemic heart disease occurs when the heart does not receive enough blood supply due to narrowing of its blood vessels. Major depression is characterized by one or more major depressive episodes lasting longer than two weeks. This study aimed to estimate the risk of developing ischemic heart disease within people suffering from major depression.
Methods & findings
This study included over 35,000 patients above the age of 30 from eight different studies who suffer from both major depression and ischemic heart disease. This study attempted to account for the impact of these diseases on patients by the use of the statistical term ‘disability-adjusted life year’. This is a measurement of the number of years lost to ill health, disability or death from a disease per period of time in a certain population.
Among people suffering from major depression, the risk of having ischemic heart disease was increased by 56%. Furthermore, in 2010, 4 million of the disability-adjusted life years associated with ischemic heart disease were attributed to major depression. As a proportion of all the disability-adjusted life years associated with ischemic heart disease, this accounted for 2.95%.The majority resulted from premature death.
Regions such as Eastern Europe, the Middle East and North Africa seemed to have the highest ischemic heart disease burden attributable to major depression. This was believed to be a function of both increased ischemic heart disease prevalence and the prevalence of major depression in these areas.
The ischemic heart disease burden attributed to major depression was higher in patients over the age of 60, mainly due to the higher risk of developing the disease in this age group.
The bottom line
Overall, major depression was associated with a significantly elevated risk of incident ischemic heart disease.
The fine print
The behavioral and biological drivers of this association remain poorly defined.
Published By :
BMC Medicine
Date :
Nov 26, 2013
