Heart Failure Patients Compounded By Depression Risk Health
Psychological depression appears to contribute to worse medical outcomes for patients with heart failure, ranking it in importance with such risk factors as high cholesterol, hypertension, and even the ability of the heart to pump blood throughout the body.
After taking into account such factors as disease severity, the strength of the heart muscle contractions, the underlying cause for the heart failure, age and medication use, a team of Duke University Medical Center and University of North Carolina researchers found that symptoms of depression were common in this population.
More to it, they´ve also found that depressed patients were over 50 percent more likely to die or be hospitalized for their heart condition than patients who were not depressed.
Researchers still don’t understand why depressed heart patients have worse outcomes. Among possible factors, depressed patients are known to have overly active immune systems, a decrease in the ability of their blood platelets to clot properly and a decrease in their heart’s ability to react appropriately to the stresses of everyday life.
In an attempt to better understand the role of depression , read more here.
Chadia —
Perhaps, to understand why depressed heart patients have worse outcomes than patients psychologists need to take a more subjective approach. If one speaks to a depressed patient, the patient will give indications of not having a will to live. This lack of will to live will perhaps stimulate the release of chemicals from the brain to the blood stream. These chemicals will then give the body commands to shut down via means of diminished blood flow, etc. Thus, this compounds problems for patients who already have heart problems. It’s just a theory stimulated by deep thought on the subject, not a fact.
Julio —
Hi,
Its very interesting to know that, its very important to know that and it make some sense because the depressed patient doesn´t take care too much of him self, apart of their beleive must influence how their body work, how a body could answer to a brain that doesnt want to live and who send the order to the body?