Heart Disease, Diabetes, Depression a Deadly Mix

People with the three conditions are 30% more likely to die, study finds

By Steven Reinberg
HealthDay Reporter

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FRIDAY, March 9 (HealthDay News) -- Heart disease, diabetes and depression can be a lethal triple-play -- boosting a patient's death risk by 20 percent to 30 percent, new research shows.

"We do not know what this increased risk is due to, but it could either be that depression influences crucial aspects of self-care behaviors needed to manage diabetes or that a more severe disease process is reflected in more depressive symptoms," said lead researcher Anastasia Georgiades, a research associate in the department of psychiatry and behavioral science at Duke University in Durham, N.C.

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Georgiades was expected to present the findings Friday at the American Psychosomatic Society annual meeting in Budapest, Hungary.

In their study, the Duke team followed 933 heart patients for more than four years. During that time, there were 135 deaths among patients with type 2 diabetes and/or depression, the researchers found.

Among patients with moderate-to-severe symptoms of depression who were also diabetics, the researchers observed a significant 30 percent greater risk of dying over the four-year period compared with patients with either depression alone or diabetes alone.

These data suggest that diabetes and depression exacerbate each other, but the reasons for this relationship aren't clear.

"The results from the present study will need to be replicated, since they are far from conclusive," Georgiades said. "Future research will also aim to investigate the mechanisms behind the associations closer. In the meantime, our advice is that physicians monitor these potential high-risk patients carefully," she said.

Co-author Lana Watkins, an assistant research professor also in Duke's department of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, noted that "if you or a loved one has coronary artery disease and diabetes, depression may impact your survival, particularly if it's severe enough to interfere with your daily activities."

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