A new study shows that the risk of heart failure is dramatically increased in those suffering from severe depression.
A study of 63,000 Norwegians confirmed suspicions that depression is linked to heart problems, reports Healthline . Presented at the EuroHeartCare 2014 conference in Norway, the study showed that risk of heart failure directly related to the severity of the depression, as researchers found that those suffering from light depression have a 5% risk while those with mild to severe symptoms have a startling 40% risk of developing heart problems.
The study was conducted over a length of 11 years, with 1,500 of the participants developing heart failure, reports WebMD . Researcher Lise Tuset Gustad notes that the study was done with other contributing factors in mind: “Depressed people have less healthy lifestyles, so our analysis adjusted for factors such as obesity and smoking that could cause both depression and heart failure. This means we can be confident that these factors did not cause the association,” she says. People with depression are more at risk for heart failure because depression triggers the stress hormone, which when released causes inflammation and plaque build-up in the heart, leading to heart failure. Gustad maintains that lowering the risk for depression-linked heart failure may, for many people, be as easy as speaking to a professional counselor.
The study is yet to be posted in a peer-reviewed journal, and should be considered preliminary.