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Health See other Health Articles Title: Depression Linked to Heart Disease in Young Adults November 10, 2011 — Depression and previous suicide attempts may be significant predictors of heart disease mortality in young adults, according to new research. A large survey of more than 7000 participants younger than age 40 years found that those with a history of depression or attempted suicide were at a significantly increased risk for ischemic heart disease (IHD) death compared with those without. Although both sexes with these factors also had a higher risk for cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality, the risk for IHD death was 14 times higher in the women with than in those without the factors. "Our study found a profound role of psychological risk factors on premature heart disease deaths in a young population, which is a group that hasn't really been looked at before in this way," co-investigator Viola Vaccarino, MD, PhD, professor of epidemiology and medicine at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, and chair of the epidemiology department at the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory, told Medscape Medical News. Dr. Viola Vaccarino "Most of the data out there on cardiovascular risk are based on middle-aged or older people. That's just the way the field has gone so far, because traditionally it's considered a disease that mostly affects older age groups." Dr. Vaccarino noted that although that is usually true, there are often competing risks for CVD mortality in an older population — but not as much in a younger age group. "Highlighting risk factors for young people may give us important information on things that may be prevented early on. And I think our results call for additional studies that look specifically at this younger age group." The study is published in the November issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry. Novel Focus on the Young According to the investigators, many previous studies have shown major depressive disorder is associated with increased risk for heart disease. Almost all of these have focused on older populations, but IHD actually begins in youth, write the researchers. For this study, the investigators evaluated data on 7641 adults aged 17 to 39 years (mean age, 28.1 years; 54.5% female) from the 1988-1994 Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES III), with linkage to the National Death Index. The Diagnostic Interview Schedule was used to assess both unipolar/bipolar depression and history of attempted suicides. Results showed that, after a median follow-up of 14.9 years, 51 of all participants died of CVD; 28 of these deaths were from IHD. In addition, 538 of all patients were found to have a lifetime history of unipolar or bipolar depression and 419 had reported previous suicide attempts. A total of 136 had a history of both. The adjusted hazard ratio (HR) for risk for CVD death was 2.38 for patients with depression (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.93 - 6.08) and 3.21 for those with past suicide attempts (95% CI, 1.36 - 7.56). For IHD mortality, the adjusted HR was 3.70 for the study participants with depression (95% CI, 1.32 - 10.35) and 7.12 for participants with previous suicide attempts (95% CI, 2 Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread
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