Depression in Cardiac Patients

Depression is a wide spread mental health problem affecting many people. The life time risk of depression in males is 12%-18% and females it is 20% to 26%. Depression is often associated with a variety of medical conditions. Depression is 3 times more common in patients after an acute myocardial infarction than in the general community. It is well established that hospitalized patients with Congestive Heart Disease, including post-Myocardial Infarction patients, patients with congestive heart failure etc, show higher prevalence’s of elevated depressive symptoms (30% to 50%) and higher rates of major depression (15% to 20%) than do people of similar age and sex living in the general community.During my clinical posting. I have come across many cardiac patients with depressive states in cardiac care units. Treatment of depressive states will definitely improve the quality of life and has positive effect on course of illness. It is therefore important to recognize presence of this state and treat it. Despite intense research in this area there is still so much to be learned about the prevalence of depression in cardiac patients.