Women Who Are Clinically Depressed Are At Greater Risk Of Heart Attacks

You’ve had a break up. Things have ended badly. You lost your job at the same time. Your family and friends don’t seem to understand the pain you’re going through. You try battling it alone, but its tough. One thing may lead to another; and this might end up taking you to the dark hallows of depression.

Beware woman! Don’t let it go there! According to a recently published report, researchers claim that women who are patients of clinical depression are more likely to get a heart disease or fall prey to heart attacks in their later lives.

What Did The Study Entail?

The study was conducted by studying the lifestyle and other patterns of around 63,000 women, some of whom were patients of clinical depression. It was seen that those of them who were depressed were at a greater risk of dying from a literal ‘broken heart’ in comparison to their happier counterparts.

Reasons Given To Support The Findings -

Women who aren’t happy are more likely to take to activities like smoking. This could lead to high blood pressure; and might drive them to eating unhealthy food. They wouldn’t be as bothered about their dietary intake in comparison to their happier counterparts.

What Did The Study Say?

Researchers suggest that unhappy women run a higher risk of dying from a sudden cardiac arrest and are more vulnerable to chronic diseases of the heart.

Clinical depression is the worst form of depression; and it was seen that this form was associated with more than a 100 percent increase in the risks related to heart diseases. The risks doubled when anti-depressants came into the picture.

According to Dr. Whang, who was the study leader for this study conducted at the Columbia University, it is of utmost importance that a woman who is battling depression gets regular check ups to keep a tab on the occurrence of coronary heart diseases.

Women with severe depression were prone to diabetes, high blood pressure, elevated cholestrol and would often take to smoking. These work as risk factors for coronary heart diseases; thus making for the link between depression and heart attacks.

The Journal of the American College of Cardiology -

Dr. Sanjiv Narayan wrote a report for the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. He stated that the data collected by the researchers has thrown light on the complexity of patterns that link depressive symptoms and cardiovascular diseases. He further stated that there may be a chance of finding some evidence to support the fact that the anti-depressant drugs may have a role of adding fuel to the existing fire in the case of women suffering from clinical depression.