Depressive Symptoms Associated With Poorer Outcomes In Heart Patients.

MedPage Today (1/5, Neale) reported, “A few modifiable behaviors appear to explain the relationship between depressive symptoms and poorer outcomes in patients in with coronary heart disease,” according to a 4,676-participant study published online in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. Investigators found, “as seen in previous studies,” that “patients with elevated depressive symptoms had a higher risk of MI or all-cause death through about four years of follow-up, after accounting for demographics, education, income, and body mass index (HR 1.41, 95% CI 1.15 to 1.72).” But, “further adjustment for comorbidities, medications, and four behavioral variables — smoking, physical inactivity, medication non-adherence, and alcohol use — rendered the association nonsignificant (HR 1.14, 95% CI 0.93 to 1.40), suggesting that some of those factors mediated the relationship.”

Related Links:

— “Depressed Heart Patients Have Worse Outcomes, “Todd Neale, Medpage Today, January 4, 2013.

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