Depression Tied to Worse Outcomes for Black Patients With Heart Failure

Treating mental health condition might improve cardiovascular health, expert says

By Robert Preidt

Wednesday, April 22, 2015

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WEDNESDAY, April 22, 2015 (HealthDay News) -- Depression seems to increase the risk of hospitalization and death in black heart failure patients, a new study finds.

Researchers assessed depression symptoms -- such as difficulty with concentration, a lack of energy and feelings of hopelessness or helplessness -- in nearly 750 black patients with heart failure. About one-third of them had symptoms of depression. The researchers then compared outcomes to more than 1,400 white patients with heart failure.

Even moderate depressive symptoms appeared to boost the risk of hospitalization or death for black patients, according to the study published April 21 in the journal Circulation: Heart Failure.

The researchers also found that black patients whose depression symptoms worsened over three months were a third more likely to die or be hospitalized than those with stable depression symptoms.

All of this means that "identifying and treating even modest symptoms of depression in black patients with heart failure could help to improve patient outcomes," study author Dr. Robert Mentz, a cardiologist and assistant professor of medicine at Duke University Medical Center, said in a journal news release.

However, the researchers found that only 22 percent of black patients with depression had been prescribed antidepressant drugs, compared with 42 percent of white patients with heart failure.

"These results suggest the potential importance of screening all heart failure patients with simple questions about their mood and depression at every health appointment, so their depression can be identified and treated," Mentz said.

Although the study found an association between depression and worse outcomes in black heart failure patients, it wasn't designed to prove that depression directly led to the worse outcomes.

About 6 million Americans have heart failure, according to the researchers.

SOURCE: Circulation: Heart Failure, news release, April 21, 2015

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