The study was supported by the National Institute of Mental Health and by an American Psychiatric Institute Research in Education/Merck Early Academic Career Research Award.
Heart failure, also known as congestive heart failure, is marked by the inability of the heart muscle to pump enough oxygen and nutrients in the blood to the body's tissues. Despite its name, not everyone dies immediately and many live for years.
A variety of factors can cause heart failure, including infections of the heart, coronary artery disease, high blood pressure, previous heart attacks and malfunctioning heart valve. An estimated 4.7 million Americans have heart failure, with 400,000 new cases reported each year, and it is the only cardiovascular disease that is rising in incidence, according to the researchers.
For their analysis, Jiang and colleagues examined the medical records of 1,006 heart failure patients who were hospitalized at Duke from March 1997 to June 2003 and asked them to rate their depressive symptoms by an easily administered questionnaire. During the first admission, 30 percent of the patients were depressed and 16.1 percent were taking antidepressants, Jiang said.
The patients in the study were followed for an average of two years and seven months, and Jiang's team found that 42.7 percent of the patients died during the follow-up period. This mortality rate is in line with national averages, Jiang said, adding that approximately 50 percent of all heart failure patients die within five years of being diagnosed.
Jiang said many cardiologists and primary care physicians who treat heart failure patients may be unfamiliar with the typical psychological assessments that can be used to evalu
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Contact: Richard Merritt
Merri006@mc.duke.edu
919-684-4148
Duke University Medical Center
13-Nov-2006