Two new studies provided support for depression as a treatable cause of coronary heart disease.
The first, which relied on repeat measures of depressive symptoms over 2 decades of follow-up, demonstrated dose-response relationships between depression and both coronary death and nonfatal myocardial infarction, but not stroke, Eric Brunner, PhD, of University College London, and colleagues reported online in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology.
The second, a post-hoc analysis of a randomized trial, showed that an intervention to treat depression in older adults reduced the risk of hard cardiovascular events, but only in those who did not have pre-existing cardiovascular disease at baseline, Jesse Stewart, PhD, of Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, and colleagues reported in the January issue of Psychosomatic Medicine.
The findings of the studies bolster the ideas that depression is a causal factor in cardiovascular disease and that treating it can help prevent cardiovascular events, Redford Williams, MD, of Duke University, told MedPage Today.
Treat Depression to Prevent CVD?
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