Reducing depression, improves heart health. Pic Courtesy: Healthdoctrine.com
Depression not only works havoc with our day-to-day interactions, but it also has a telling effect on heart health.
Psychcentral reports a new study by psychiatrists and cardiologists at the University of California – Davis and Duke University schools of medicine, wherein it has been observed that by controlling depression, heart health of patients and their quality of life see an immense improvement.
Wei Jiang, M.D., senior author of the study and director of the Neuropsychocardiology Laboratory at Duke University Medical Center, told Psychcentral,
Our new study is just the tip of the iceberg, since the relationship between the body and mind is extremely complex. Researchers and practitioners increasingly recognize that the mind and the body have powerful connections, which is promising since they have been segregated for years. This kind of interdisciplinary research can help find answers to how physical health affects mental health, and vice versa, and inform the development of clinical practices that recognize this approach.
For the purpose of the study researchers did a secondary examination on data obtained from the 2008 Sertraline Against Depression and Heart Disease in Chronic Heart Failure (SADHART-CHF) report.
The effect of Zoloft an antidepressant medication sertraline, was analyzed on 469 men and women, whose age was 45 years or older. The men and women who were under observation, had been identified both with heart failure and depression.
While the first SADHART-CHF results did not show any significant difference in reducing depression symptoms between a placebo and sertraline treatment, the focus of the current study was health and depression of patients, independent of the effects of any antidepressant medication.
As per the researchers, patients whose depression went into reduction, experienced an improved sense of physical and mental well-being.
This study is crucial, since it addresses a vital understanding that mind and body are not exclusive of each other.
Glen Xiong, M.D., associate clinical professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at UC Davis and lead author views also agree with Jiang. Sharing his views he said,
I think clinicians will be more motivated to both screen and treat depressive symptoms in people with heart failure because of the significant functional improvements.
