MDS Alert

MDS & CLINICAL NEWS TO USE

Screening patients with heart disease carefully for depression symptoms might be a good idea. Patients with heart disease who develop symptoms of depression appear to be at greater risk for heart failure, according to new study by cardiac researchers at Utah's Intermountain Medical Center.

The researchers also found that taking antidepressant medications to ease depressive symptoms did not appear to mitigate this risk, according to an Intermountain press release.

"Our data suggest that depression is an important and emerging risk factor for heart failure among patients with coronary heart disease," said Heidi May, PhD, MSPH, an epidemiologist at Intermountain Medical Center and lead author of the study," in the release.

"Patients need to be carefully screened for depression so that interventions that alter some of the risk associated with depression can be used and the related risk of heart failure and other cardiovascular events can be diminished," May said.

A number of other risk factors are linked with depression and heart failure, the release noted, including smoking, hypertension, diabetes, and being overweight.

"Depression among heart disease patients has also been found to be predictive of future cardiovascular events, such as a heart attack and even death," states the release.

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