DEPRESSION AND MYOCARDIAL INFARCTION. CLINICAL ASPECTS OF CORONARY DISEASE ASA RESULT OF DEPRESSION AND OF DEPRESSION INCREASED RISK AS A RESULT OF THE CORONARY DISEASE
Abstract:
Out of all major interference areas of various
specialties, atherosclerosis is of special interest for
physicians, for cardiologists, but for neurologists and
psychiatrists as well. Great deals of vascular diseases are
caused by evolution of atherosclerosis and psychiatric
conditions are frequently generated and sustained by the
vascular atherosclerotic pathology but not only. Our
purpose in this paper is to oversee, in relation to the
above stated observations, the interference of two major
human conditions: depression and myocardial infarction,
as well as their interconditioning in medical practice. Just
like coronary ischemic disease plays a major role in
cardiovascular pathology, depression also plays a very
important role in psychiatric affections. Consecutive
depression following myocardial infarction has been
extensively studied simultaneously with the statements of
Fausure and Smith stating the possibility to associate
coronary disease and depression. The authors claim that
65% of the patients that suffered a myocardial infarction
reported associated depression signs, and that major
depression disorder occurs in 15-20% of these cases.
Within the last decades an impressive number of
epidemiological studies tested the connection between
depression and mortality at patients that suffered
myocardial infarction. These studies claimed depression
played its role as independent risk factor of the coronary
disease at persons that initially didn’t suffer from this
disease. Another research, by Williamsen and Smith,
evidences that those depressive persons suffering from a
former cardiovascular disease present a fatal myocardial
infarction risk 3.5 times higher than non-depressive
persons suffering from a cardiac disease. Some
physicians believe that depression plays a role in the
occurrence of cardiovascular diseases since depressive
patients represent 60% of the number of hospitalized
cardiac patients. Researches on the relation between
infarction and depression report the fact that about one
third of the patients committed for myocardial infarction
suffered from clinical depression signs 18 months after
the coronary accident. There is increasing evidence that
depression affects prognosis in the case of patients
suffering from coronary artery disease, particularly in the
case of patients that suffered an acute coronary accident.
These pieces of evidence suggest that depression and
coronary artery disease may lead to an increased decease
risk irrespective of which of the diseases occurred first.
This paper is meant to be a pertinent argument based on
clinical and paraclinical scientific findings aimed to
lower the increased morbidity and mortality given by the
coexistence of the two affections thorough their
prophylaxis and early treatment.
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