Amor and Psyche; a growing relationship?

Excerpt

Two interesting studies on the brain-heart connection were recently presented. At the 12th Annual Spring Meeting on Cardiovascular Nursing of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) in Copenhagen, Denmark (16/17 March, 2012), Nikki Damen, a PhD student at Tilburg University, reported that patients who are depressed after coronary artery stenting have a worse prognosis. The authors reported that in patients with coronary stents depression was associated with a 1.5 times greater risk of death during a seven-year study period. The study included 1234 coronary artery disease patients in the Netherlands (mean age 62 years), who underwent assessment for depression six months after receiving a coronary stent. Depression was diagnosed in 324 (26 %) of the patients. After seven years follow-up, 187 of the patients had died, of whom 23 % of the patients with depression and 12 % of the patients without depression. The researchers found that gender and age were factors in the increased risk, with men and older patients significantly more likely to die during the study. However, the use of cholesterol-lowering statins was associated with a reduced risk of death among study participants. The intriguing Tilburg study awaits further publication. …