4Jul
The study of depression in heart patients suggests that treatment makes patients feel better – but may not improve survival.
Mounting evidence suggests that depression is a risk factor in heart disease. Up to a quarter of heart patients have either depression or low social support and they have a three to four times higher mortality rate from their condition. So it would make sense to treat depression, perhaps, following a heart attack?
Researchers at the Mayo Clinic in the US, and elsewhere, have surveyed nearly 2,500 patients, all of whom had been diagnosed with depression or had low social support. Half of them were given treatments, such as counselling, for their psychological problems, while the rest received ‘usual care’. The treatment group improved mentally during the programme but so, too, did the controls. In the end, there was no difference in survival rates between the two groups.
The researchers say it’s encouraging that treatment helped – but wonder why the improvement in the patients’ mental health didn’t lead to an improvement in mortality. It may be that there wasn’t enough difference in the groups – the controls improved too, maybe by a ‘placebo’ effect of being in a research programme. Or perhaps it is necessary to start treatment earlier, or prolong it, to see a reduced death rate. One thing is for sure – heart patients who are depressed can benefit from treatment for their psychological problems.
