Assessment of depression following acute myocardial infarction using the Beck depression inventory.(Scientific Letter)

Heart 2004;90:217-218. doi: 10.1136/hrt.2003.013904

Survivors of myocardial infarction (MI) who are depressed are at increased risk of cardiac death and morbidity than those who are not depressed. (1) This adverse effect is independent of the severity of the underlying ischaemic heart disease. (1) However, additional care is rarely taken of depressed patients, largely due to a failure in identification. Most studies have used time consuming interviews requiring specially trained staff that may be impractical for day to day use in the clinical setting. The Beck depression inventory (BDI) is a self report inventory which is simple, accurate at identifying depression, and has been used in the USA to indicate those with an adverse prognosis. However, prevalence of depression in the UK may be different to that in the USA when using similar methods post-MI. (2) (3) Cultural and socioeconomic differences between the USA and UK may exist to uncouple the prognostic association between an elevated BDI score and adverse prognosis. Therefore, the aims of this study were to determine the prevalence of an elevated BDI and …