Depression Linked to Early Heart Disease

It may contribute to hardening of the arteries, study suggests

By Steven Reinberg
HealthDay Reporter

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TUESDAY, Feb. 6 (HealthDay News) -- Depression, especially its physical signs, such as fatigue and loss of appetite, may contribute to thickening arteries, an early sign of cardiovascular disease, researchers report.

Previous research has suggested that negative emotions like anxiety and anger can increase the risk for heart disease. But in the new study, depression -- and its physical symptoms -- was the emotional linchpin to early signs of heart disease.

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"In other studies, anxiety, depression, anger and hostility have all separately been linked to future risk of heart disease," said lead researcher Jesse C. Stewart, a member of the psychology department at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis. But the problem with those studies was that they didn't look at these negative emotions together. And since their symptoms can overlap, it has been hard to tell which emotion plays the most important role in heart disease, he said.

For the study, Stewart's team looked for emotional links to heart disease among 324 men and women with an average age of 60.6 years old. To determine early signs of heart disease, the scientists examined carotid artery intima-media thickness, which is a measure of the inner layers of the arteries and is related to early stage heart disease. Measurements were taken at the start of the study and again three years later.

"We found that mild to moderate depressive symptoms were associated with greater progression of subclinical atherosclerosis [hardening of the arteries] -- greater increase of the artery wall," Stewart said. "In contrast, anxiety symptoms, hostility and anger were not at all related to a change in the blood vessel thickness."

What's more, analysis showed that only the physical symptoms of depression predicted the progression of atherosclerosis. And it appears that the symptoms of depression exist before the signs of atherosclerosis, Stewart said.

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