Heart Disease: Does depression cause heart disease, or does heart disease cause depression? Both may be true.
"In a study of over 8,000 people, depressed men were 70% more likely to develop heart disease and women with severe depression were 78% more prone to developing disease. (Ferketich, A et al, 1999).
"Up to 65% of patients report depressive symptoms after a heart attack and a third will suffer major depression within the first year" (Carney, RM et al., 1996)
"Medically depressed cardiac patients don't do as well as non-depressed patients, with more re-hospitalizations, greater recurrences of chest pains, and poorer compliance with cardiac therapies."
[from "Brain-Body Science: A Progress Report" from the Charles A. Dana Brain-Body Institute, 12/99]