Women in midlife with a history of depression appear at markedly greater risk of suffering from heart disease, new research suggests.The finding seems to reinforce the well-known link between depression and heart troubles, but it doesn’t prove a cause-and-effect relationship.
The study was scheduled for presentation Wednesday at the North American Menopause Society’s annual meeting in Orlando, Fla.
Jiang and his team tracked 1,084 women who received routine mammogram screenings at a radiology facility starting in 2004. Their average age was 55. Each completed a depression questionnaire with three questions inquiring about feeling sad or depressed; helpless; or downhearted and blue.
Other health information was also taken, including participants’ heart disease risk factors, such as family history, smoking status, exerciselevels, high blood pressure or diabetes. A similar depression questionnaire was mailed to each participant four times over the next 10 years to obtain follow-up information and any change in heart disease status.
Of the 1,030 women who had no history of heart disease at the start of the study, about 18 percent answered “yes” to at least one depression question. Of those women, 9 percent experienced one or more instances of cardiac disease over the next 10 years, compared to only 2 percent who reported “no” to feeling depressed.
Originally posted on Health Day on 6 October by Maureen Salamon