Post heart attack depression common in women

Women under the age of 60 years have an increased risk of developing depression after a heart attack as compared to men and older patients. Depression is known to be prevalent especially among young women. It is also known that symptoms of depression often occur after a heart attack. However, it was unclear if younger women who are hospitalised for a heart attack have higher risk of depression. To investigate, researchers from Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, analysed 2,498 heart attack patients who were treated at 1 of 19 centres in the United States between January 2003 and June 2004. Depression, which was assessed during hospitalisation, was defined as a score of at least 10 on the Primary Care Evaluation of Mental Disorders Brief Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ). The average PHQ score for patients 60 years of age or younger was 6.4 - significantly higher than the 5.0 score in older patients. Also, women had an average score of 6.8, while men had a score of 5.2. The highest average PHQ score among the younger women was 8.2. Forty percent of young women had depression. The rate in young men, 22 percent, was just slightly higher than the 21-percent rate in older women. Older men had the lowest prevalence of depression, at 15 percent. Compared with older men, younger women were 3.1-times more likely to be depressed. Additional studies are needed to explore the reasons for these differences, in the meantime doctors should be aware that younger women have a higher susceptibility for depression after a heart attack. Therefore, screening for depression in younger women who have had a heart attack should be particularly aggressive.