Taking Depression to Heart

Aug. 2 -- FRIDAY, Aug. 1 (HealthDay News) -- Scientists have long observed a link between depression and heart disease. Now there's research to help pinpoint the symptoms of depression that may signal cardiovascular trouble.

A study suggests that people who suffer from depression, especially certain physical symptoms such as loss of appetite, sleep problems or fatigue, may be at risk of developing heart disease.

"Our findings raise the possibility that the physical symptoms of depression are particularly toxic to the cardiovascular system," said the study's lead author, Jesse C. Stewart, assistant professor in the Department of Psychology at Indiana University-Purdue University, Indianapolis. "Identifying the most harmful aspect of depression is important, because we will then know which specific components to target with our treatments."

Previous studies have linked negative emotions, including depression, anxiety and anger, to a heightened risk of heart disease. But because these emotions tend to overlap and "co-occur" within people, it's been difficult to associate a particular symptom -- or set of symptoms -- with heightened cardiovascular risk, Stewart explained.

His study, published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, is believed to be the first to tease out which emotions are key risk factors for heart disease.

"Our study is important, because it is the first to simultaneously examine the links between all of these negative emotions and sub-clinical atherosclerosis," Stewart said. "In addition, we broke depression down into physical and cognitive/emotion symptom clusters, which is uncommon."

Stewart's team measured the internal carotid artery thickness of 324 adults at the beginning of the study and three years later.

Thickening of the inside walls of the coronary arteries -- atherosclerosis -- slows or blocks the flow of blood to the heart and brain and can lead to heart attack or stroke. The carotid artery is the large vessel in the neck that supplies blood to the brain.