Symptoms of Depression, Acute Myocardial Infarction, and Total Mortality in a Community Sample

Bibliographic Data

ID23318992
AuthorsJohn C Barefoot (From the Behavioral Medicine Research Center, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC; the Institute of Preventive Medicine, Copenhagen (Denmark) Municipal Hospital (J.B.); and Glostrup Population Studies, Copenhagen County Hospital (M.S.), Glostrup, Denmark.), Marianne Schroll (From the Behavioral Medicine Research Center, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC; the Institute of Preventive Medicine, Copenhagen (Denmark) Municipal Hospital (J.B.); and Glostrup Population Studies, Copenhagen County Hospital (M.S.), Glostrup, Denmark.)
Year1996
Volume93
Issue11
Pages1976-1980
Publication date1996-06-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueCirculation (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0009-7322 • E-ISSN: 1524-4539
PublisherOvid Technologies (Wolters Kluwer Health) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1161/01.cir.93.11.1976
PMID8640971
OpenAlexW2016961635
LanguageEN
Citations received93
References cited17

Background Depression has been shown to adversely affect the prognosis of patients with established coronary artery disease, but there is comparatively little evidence to document the role of depression in the initial development of coronary disease. Methods and Results Study participants were 409 men and 321 women who were residents of Glostrup, Denmark, born in 1914. Physical and psychological examinations in 1964 and 1974 established their baseline risk factor and disease status and their level of depressive symptomatology. Initial myocardial infarction (MI) was observed in 122 participants, and there were 290 deaths during follow-up, which ended in 1991. A 2-SD difference in depression score was associated with relative risks of 1.71 ( P =.005) for MI and 1.59 ( P Conclusions High levels of depressive symptomatology are associated with increased risks of MI and mortality. The graded relationships between depression scores and risk, long-lasting nature of the effect, and stability of the depression measured across time suggest that this risk factor is best viewed as a continuous variable that represents a chronic psychological characteristic rather than a discrete and episodic psychiatric condition.

Cardiology · Depression (economics) · Myocardial infarction · Cardiac Health and Mental Health · Cardiac Imaging and Diagnostics · Emergency Medicine · Internal Medicine · Medicine · Takotsubo Cardiomyopathy and Associated Phenomena

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