Once again science proves that our body is deeply connected to our mind in the most subtle ways possible. The way we feel greatly influences both the way we act and our health.
There have been many studies that associate depression or frustration with certain types of diseases and even forms of cancer.
A new study reveals that people with heart failure face an increased risk of death if they are moderately to severely depressed.
The study led by professor of cardiology John Cleland from the Imperial College London, mainly shows that a good management of depression, once it is recognized, could reduce the death risk for people suffering of heart failure.
In order to carry out the research, 154 patients who were in the hospital and suffering from heart disease were monitored and their evolution recorded. Out of these, 103 did not suffer from any kind of depression, 27 had mild depression and 24 moderate to severe depression.
After 302 days, the researchers discovered that 27 of them had died. The people suffering from moderate to severe depression faced a higher risk of death (one in five died in less than a year), even if the data was more or less the same for all patients. That is, they had equal chances of survival.
Depression is not uncommon in patients who have had heart failure. According to Professor Cleland, it affects between 20 to 40 percent of such patients.
Depression often leads to insomnia, lack of motivation or interest in things or activities that are part of daily life, loss of self-confidence, lack of appetite and poorer quality of life in general.
Therefore, it is not completely astounding that this study had such results. The general lack of interest in life, associated with the heart disease raises the likelihood for a patient to die in the first year after the failure.
“Our results show that depression is strongly associated with death during the year following discharge from hospital after an admission for the exacerbation of heart failure; we expect that the link persists beyond one year,” said Professor Cleland.
Heart failure is extremely dangerous itself, as it was shown that 25 percent of the patients who have experienced it are readmitted to the hospital for a variety of reasons in the first month after the attack. So it is no wonder a combination between depression and heart disease might prove fatal.
The results are to be presented at the annual meeting of the HFA (Heart failure Association) organized by the European Society of Cardiology in Seville, Spain.
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