Depression increases the risk that people with heart disease caused by blockage of coronary arteries will develop heart failure, a new study finds.
That finding was to be expected, said Heidi May, an epidemiologist at the Intermountain Medical Center in Murray, Utah, and lead author of the study, because earlier research had found that depression increases the risk of heart failure in otherwise healthy people. Heart failure is a progressive loss of the ability to pump blood.
What was not expected was the finding that treatment with antidepressant drugs did not reduce the risk of heart failure among people with depression in the group May studied -- 13,708 people who were diagnosed with coronary artery disease.
READ MORE @ FORBES
Showing posts with label heart failure. Show all posts
Showing posts with label heart failure. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Friday, January 16, 2009
Study Finds Drug Risks With Newer Antipsychotics
The popular drugs known as atypical antipsychotics, prescribed for an array of conditions, including schizophrenia, autism and dementia, double patients’ risk of dying from sudden heart failure, a study has found.
The finding is the latest in a succession of recent reports contradicting the long-held assumption that the new drugs, which include Risperdal, Zyprexa and Seroquel, are safer than the older and much less expensive medications that they replaced.
The risk of death from the drugs is not high, on average about 3 percent in a person being treated at least 10 years, according to the study, published Thursday in The New England Journal of Medicine. Nor was the risk different from that of the older antipsychotic drugs.
But it was significant enough that an accompanying editorial urged doctors to limit their prescribing of antipsychotic drugs, especially to children and elderly patients,who can be highly susceptible to the drugs’ side effects, including rapid weight gain.
READ MORE @ NY TIMES
The finding is the latest in a succession of recent reports contradicting the long-held assumption that the new drugs, which include Risperdal, Zyprexa and Seroquel, are safer than the older and much less expensive medications that they replaced.
The risk of death from the drugs is not high, on average about 3 percent in a person being treated at least 10 years, according to the study, published Thursday in The New England Journal of Medicine. Nor was the risk different from that of the older antipsychotic drugs.
But it was significant enough that an accompanying editorial urged doctors to limit their prescribing of antipsychotic drugs, especially to children and elderly patients,who can be highly susceptible to the drugs’ side effects, including rapid weight gain.
READ MORE @ NY TIMES
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Treating depression seen important in heart failure
Depression increases the risk of death in patients with heart failure, but the risk apparently disappears with antidepressant use, according to a study.
"Recent studies suggest that the use of antidepressants may be associated with increased mortality (death) in patients with cardiac disease," Dr. Christopher M. O'Connor, of Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina, and colleagues note in the medical journal Archives of Internal Medicine.
"Because depression has also been shown to be associated with increased mortality in these patients, it remains unclear if this association is attributable to the use of antidepressants or to depression."
The researchers therefore studied roughly 1,000 patients hospitalized for heart failure who were followed up annually. The authors prospectively collected data on depression status and use of antidepressants.
READ MORE @ REUTERS
"Recent studies suggest that the use of antidepressants may be associated with increased mortality (death) in patients with cardiac disease," Dr. Christopher M. O'Connor, of Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina, and colleagues note in the medical journal Archives of Internal Medicine.
"Because depression has also been shown to be associated with increased mortality in these patients, it remains unclear if this association is attributable to the use of antidepressants or to depression."
The researchers therefore studied roughly 1,000 patients hospitalized for heart failure who were followed up annually. The authors prospectively collected data on depression status and use of antidepressants.
READ MORE @ REUTERS
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