Authors : Srinivasan K
Publication Year : 2011
Research in recent decades suggests that depression and coronary heart disease (CHD) have a bidirectional relationship. Studies suggest that the prevalence rate of depression among patients with CHD is far greater than the 12-month prevalence rate of 6.6% reported in the community. This review shows the impact of depression on preexisting CHD and risk pf developing CHD in depression. There exist several possible mechanisms that underlie the relationship between depression and CHD like unhealthy lifestyle, cardiac autonomic regulation and inflamatory process. Only few studies have empirically studied the efficacy of treatment of depression in patients with CHD, which shows that the importance of treatment of depression in patients with CHD offers the potential of improving quality of life and cardiac outcomes.