Page 146 - Encyclopedia of Nursing Research

DEPRESSion AnD CARDioVASCULAR DiSEASES n 113

Depression is a common and impor- depression and major depression on heart
tant contributing risk factor of morbidity disease mortality. They found that patients
and mortality in patients with cardiovas- with major depression, when compared with D
cular disease. Several studies have found those who had minor depression, had signifi-
that depression is a significant predictor of cantly higher risk for cardiac mortality. These
adverse patient outcomes in a variety of car- findings suggest that the severity of depres-
diovascular conditions such as heart failure, sion is related to higher cardiac mortality. in
coronary artery disease, stroke, and myocar- another study, Schulz et al. (2000) reported
dial infarction (Gump, Matthews, Eberly, & that depressed participants with heart fail-
Chang, 2005; Penninx et al., 2001; Rutledge ure at baseline had the highest mortality risk
et al., 2006; Schulz et al., 2000; Williams followed by stroke, intermittent claudication,
et al., 2002). Findings from a large sample angina pectoris, and myocardial infarction
of Framingham heart Study participants patients. Further, Cox proportional hazards
show that depressive symptom was associ- regression model demonstrated that depres-
ated with increased risk of developing stroke sive symptoms were an independent pre-
(Salaycik et al., 2007). Participants who were dictor of mortality. in another study of the
on antidepressant medications had similar relationships between depression, coronary
risk level for developing stroke to those with- heart disease (ChD) incidence, and mor-
out medications (Salaycik et al., 2007). other tality, Ferketich, Schwartzbaum, Frid, and
research results provide evidence of the Moeschberger (2000) found that depressed
role of hypothesized common genetic path- men and women were at increased risk for
ways for both depression and heart disease incident of ChD events compared with non-
(Scherrer et al., 2003) and depressive symp- depressed counterparts. Moreover, unlike
toms and inflammatory markers in twin depressed women, depressed men had
studies (Su et al., 2009). increased risk of cardiac mortality.
Scientific research has provided several Prospective population-based studies of
valid and reliable instruments for assess- depression also found an increased risk for
ing depression in cardiovascular patients, ChD because of depression. Using data from
such as the Center for Epidemiological the Yale health and Aging Project (Williams
Studies Depression Scale (Griffin et al., et al., 2002) revealed that depressed individu-
2007; Lesman-Leegte et al., 2009), the als had demonstrated a 69% increase in the
Cardiac Depression Scale (hare & Davis, risk for incident of heart failure in compari-
1996; Wise, harris, & Carter, 2006), the son with nondepressed individuals. in addi-
hamilton Depression Rating Scale (Koenig, tion, depressed participants were more likely
Vandermeer, Chambers, Burr-Crutchfield, & to be women; consequently, depression was a
Johnson, 2006), the Beck Depression inven- significant risk factor of heart failure among
tory ii (Frasure-Smith et al., 2009), and the women but not in men.
Geriatric Depression Scale (Salman & Lee, Research findings suggest that depres-
2008), and has also provided evidence of sion is a risk factor for cardiac morbid-
favorable health benefits for depression miti- ity and mortality. however, interventions
gation in cardiac population. however, there that may reduce depression have failed to
is no sufficient evidence that depression reduce depression-related cardiac outcomes
treatment reduces cardiovascular events (Berkman et al., 2003; Salaycik et al., 2007).
(Rees, Bennett, West, Davey, & Ebrahim, Recognition of the overlap between
2004; Salaycik et al., 2007). depression and cardiovascular disease has
Several large-scale community-based led to increased interest in finding plausi-
studies have been conducted. Penninx ble biobehavioral mechanisms and genetic
et al. (2001) examined the effect of minor basis that link them together. in fact, there