Depression After Surgery Raises Risk Of Future Heart Problems.(Brief Article)

2001 DEC 13 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Recovery after coronary artery bypass surgery depends as much on the patient's state of mind as it does on the condition of the patient's heart, according to researchers at the University of Maryland Medical Center and Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons.

Their study evaluated the impact of depression on the health of men and women following bypass surgery. Results of the study were published in The Lancet on November 24, 2001.

"Based on our findings, we believe that physicians and patients need to be aware of the increased risks faced by patients suffering depression," says Ingrid Connerney, DrPH, director of Clinical Effectiveness at the University of Maryland Medical Center and a clinical assistant professor of surgery at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. "The next logical step is to determine the mechanisms responsible for these effects," she adds.

The study included 309 patients (207 men and 102 women) who had bypass surgery at the University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore from March to November, 1997. The researchers looked at whether depression prior to leaving the hospital played a role in how well patients would do within a year following surgery.

"We found that depressed patients were more than twice as likely to experience a cardiac problem within the next 12 months than those who were not depressed," says Richard Sloan, PhD, director of the Behavioral Medicine Program and professor in the department of psychiatry at Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons. "These problems included chest pain, heart failure requiring hospitalization, a heart attack, or the need for another cardiac procedure."

The women in the study had double the risk of future cardiac events ...