Key result
Psychological and pharmacological interventions for depression in CAD patients improve depression outcomes but show no beneficial effects on reducing mortality rates and cardiac events.
Why the study?
Do psychological and pharmacological interventions for depression reduce mortality rates and cardiac events in patients with coronary artery disease?
Do psychological and pharmacological interventions for depression reduce mortality rates and cardiac events in patients with coronary artery disease?
Treating depression in CAD patients improves depression symptoms but does not reduce mortality or cardiac events, and may have negative physical consequences.
A significant relationship between depression and cardiac morbidity has been documented. The identification of depression as an unfavorable marker of the clinical course in coronary artery disease (CAD) in the 1990s generated the hope of improving the prognosis of cardiovascular disease with treatment of depression. This hope, however, has not survived the test of time. In a Cochrane review on randomized controlled clinical trials (RCTs) of any length of treatment and any length of follow-up, psychological and pharmacological interventions have shown a small yet clinically meaningful effect on depression outcomes in CAD patients. However, no beneficial effects on the reduction of mortality rates and cardiac events have been found. Indeed, in some cases, treatment of depression was found to entail negative physical consequences. There are several potential explanations, involving drugs and psychotherapy, which account for this phenomenon.
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Rafanelli et al. (2013) conducted a review in Coronary artery disease and depression. Psychological and pharmacological interventions was evaluated on Mortality rates and cardiac events. Psychological and pharmacological interventions for depression in CAD patients improve depression outcomes but show no beneficial effects on reducing mortality rates and cardiac events.
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