Psychological therapies for depression may be associated with a reduced risk of cardiovascular disease.
Do psychological therapies reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease in patients with depression?
Psychological interventions for depression may be associated with a reduced risk of cardiovascular disease, though further research is needed to establish causality.
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AIMS: People with depression are up to 72% more at risk to develop cardiovascular disease (CVD) in their lifetime. Evidence-based psychotherapies are first-line interventions for the treatment of depression and are delivered nationally in England through the National Health Service via the Improving Access to Psychological Therapy (IAPT) primary care programme. It is currently unknown whether positive therapy outcomes may be associated with cardiovascular risk reduction. This study aimed to examine the association between psychotherapy outcomes for depression and incident CVD. METHODS AND RESULTS: A cohort of 636 955 individuals who have completed a course of psychotherapy was built from linked electronic healthcare record databases of national coverage in England: the national IAPT database, the Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) database, and the HES-ONS (Office of National Statistics) mortality database. Multivariable Cox models adjusting for clinical and demographic covariates were run to estimate the association between reliable improvement from depression and the risk of subsequent incidence of cardiovascular events. After a median follow-up of 3.1 years, reliable improvement from depression symptoms was associated with a lower risk of new onset of any CVD hazard ratio (HR): 0.88, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.86, 0.89, coronary heart disease (HR: 0.89, 95% CI: 0.86, 0.92), stroke (HR: 0.88, 95% CI: 0.83, 0.94), and all-cause mortality (HR: 0.81, 95% CI: 0.78, 0.84). This association was stronger in the under 60 compared with the over 60 for all outcomes. Results were confirmed in sensitivity analyses. CONCLUSION: Management of depression through psychological interventions may be associated with reduced risk of CVD. More research is needed to understand the causality of these associations.
“Our study suggests that improving mental health could also help physical health, especially in those aged under 60. People whose depression symptoms improved after therapy had a 10% to 15% lower risk of cardiovascular disease than those who did not improve. Comparable effects were found in similar studies investigating low fat diets.”
Baou et al. (Tue,) reported a other. Psychological therapies for depression may be associated with a reduced risk of cardiovascular disease.