Depression increases risk for heart diseases

BEIJING, March. 11 (Chinese medianet)-- A relatively

healthy woman with severe depression is at increased risk of heart

diseasethan already sickwoman, say U.S.

researchers.

Columbia University researchers Monday

reportedthat depression may lead to heart disease in the first place.The

scientists tracked 63,000 women from the long-running Nurses' Health Study

between 1992 and 2004. None had signs of heart disease when the study began, but

nearly 8 percent had evidence of serious depression.

The depressed women were more than twice as likely to

experience sudden cardiac death - death typically caused by an irregular

heartbeat, concluded the 12-year study, published Monday in the Journal of the

American College of Cardiology. They also had a smaller increased risk of death

from other forms of heart disease.

Sudden cardiac death seemed more closely linked with

antidepressant use than with the depression symptoms the women reported.

That might simply mean that women who used

antidepressants were, appropriately, the most seriously depressed, cautioned

lead researcher Dr. William Whang. But he said the finding merited more

research.

(Agencies)