Women more likely to develop depression after heart attack

Women are more likely to develop anxiety and depression after a heart attack than men, according to a new research.
The study investigated the impact of gender and cardiovascular disease risk factors on the risk of developing depression and anxiety after a myocardial infarction (MI).
"The World Health Organisation predicts that by 2020 depression will be the second leading cause of disability and mortality in the world, surpassed only by ischaemic heart disease," said study researcher Professor Pranas Serpytis from Lithuania.
"Major depression follows MI in approximately 18 per cent of cases and is an important predictor of disability and poor quality of life in the year post-MI.

"Patients with depression are nearly 6 times more likely to die within 6 months after an MI than those without depression.
"The increased risk of death in patients with depression persists up to 18 months after the MI. But despite the fact that post-MI depression is common and burdensome, the condition remains under-recognised and undertreated," Serpytis said.

The study included 160 patients admitted with a myocardial infarction to the Vilnius University Hospital Santariskiu Clinics in Vilnius, Lithuania.
Patients were interviewed at least 1 month after the MI to collect information on demographic (including sex, age, education, marital status) and clinical characteristics (incidence of diabetes mellitus, previous treatment for hypertension, previous MI), other cardiovascular disease risk factors (smoking, physical activity), and history of mental health issues.

"We found that women were more likely to develop anxiety and depression after a heart attack than men. More research is needed to discover the possible reasons for this," Serpytis said.
The study also found that current smokers were more likely to have anxiety after an MI than never smokers or people who had quit smoking more than two years ago.
There was no association between smoking and depression after an MI.
The research was presented at the annual meeting of the Acute Cardiovascular Care Association (ACCA) of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) in Geneva, Switzerland.