The Depression Is Associated With Heart Troubles

The Depression Is Associated With Heart Troubles.
Depression is comparatively run-of-the-mill in patients who undergo heart bypass surgery, and a new study finds that short-term use of antidepressants may abet patients' recovery May 2013. "Depression among patients requiring or having undergone circumvent surgery is high and can significantly impact postoperative recovery," said one skilful not connected to the study, Dr Bryan Bruno, acting chairman of the department of psychiatry at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City neartohealth com. In this study, a rig of French researchers looked at 182 patients who started taking a particular serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) antidepressant two to three weeks before undergoing coronary artery route graft surgery and continued taking it for six months after the procedure.

SSRIs contain widely used antidepressants such as Celexa, Lexapro, Prozac, Paxil and Zoloft. In this study, patients took one 10 milligram scratch pad of Lexapro (escitalopram) daily. The chew over was funded by Lexapro's maker, H Lundbeck A/S medrxcheck. The outcomes of patients prescribed Lexapro were compared to 179 patients who took an quiescent placebo as an alternative of the antidepressant.

During the six months after the surgery, the patients who took the antidepressant reported less gloom and better quality of life than those who took the placebo, the researchers reported. In addition, taking antidepressants did not broaden the risk of complications or death in the year after surgery, according to the study, which appears in the May emanate of the Annals of Thoracic Surgery.

The study suggests that taking the antidepressant "enables patients who were at least measure depressed before surgery for coronary artery disease to feel better more quickly after surgery, without influencing the drawback rate," study leader Dr Sidney Chocron said in a journal news release. "Even perceptible depression before coronary surgery can delay a patient's mental recovery and bourgeon the feeling of pain after surgery," added Chocron, a professor of cardiac surgery at University Hospital Jean Minjoz in Besancon.

Prescribing antidepressants for patients before they have concern bypass surgery helps them "get on with their lives more at once after such a serious surgical procedure," Chocron said in the news release. Bruno agreed that treating even quiet depression is important. "I agree with the authors' concluding jot that, unless contraindicated, there should be a relatively low threshold - for initiating antidepressant therapy" in these types of generosity patients, he said. But another expert said the study reveals hardly ever about the strategy for patients with more severe depression.

So "The mild benefit associated with the use of antidepressants in this research is consistent with a population which was not significantly depressed," noted Dr Dan Iosifescu, director of the Mood and Anxiety Disorders Program and fellow-worker professor of psychiatry and neuroscience at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City. He said "the patients in this investigation had depressive symptoms in a chain which usually does not qualify for a diagnosis of depression" whosphil.com. Therefore, "on balance this study provides useful information on the safety of antidepressants in post- bypass patients," Iosifescu said, "but does not furnish to our understanding of their usefulness since the study population appears to have very low rates of depression".