The symptom profile of vascular depression

OBJECTIVES: Vascular depression is regarded as a subtype of depression, especially in--but not limited strictly to--older persons, and characterized by a specific clinical presentation and an association with (cerebro)vascular risk and disease. It is also known that depression is a risk factor in the development of myocardial infarction. The possibility of identifying depressed subjects at risk of a first cardiac event by their clinical presentation in general practice would have significant implications. METHODS: We studied the baseline depression symptom profiles of subjects in the Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam and compared the profile of depressed subjects who had and had not suffered a first cardiac event at a follow-up after eight years. RESULTS: We could not confirm the specific symptom profile in depressed subjects who suffered from a first cardiac event at follow-up. Most notably, the presumed specific symptoms of vascular depression, psychomotor retardation, and anhedonia were not significantly associated with the occurrence of a first cardiac event at follow-up. CONCLUSIONS: In this large community study we failed to identify a difference in the depression symptom profile between incident cardiac and non-cardiac cases.