Is Depression Really Increasing the Risk of a Heart Attack?

Medical Video: Depression: A New Female Heart Risk

Stress or depression is commonly found in people who have severe illness. This is more often found by women than men. Depression causes various chemical processes in the body that cause increased rates of disability and death from serious illnesses, including heart disease. However, does depression cause the potential for a heart attack to increase?

Before we discuss the relationship of depression to the risk of a heart attack, we need to describe what depression is. Many scales or scores are capable of diagnosing depression. At a glance you might be able to distinguish depressed people or not. However, the diagnosis of depression is clinically enforced based on the Diagnostic and Stattistical Manual of Mental Health (DSM V) in 2013. In Indonesia, its implementation is simplified through the Guidelines for Classification of Mental Disorders (PPDGJ) issued by the Indonesian Ministry of Health.

What are the symptoms of depression?

The typical symptoms of depressed individuals are:

Depressive mood. This can be seen from the gloomy face, blank stare, and the body condition that is not fresh.
Reduced energy resulting in fatigue and reduced activity. Usually people who are in depressive episodes avoid contact with other people and tend to shut themselves up.
Loss of interest and excitement.

Symptoms not typical (but referring to depression) include:

Confidence decreases
Concentration and attention is reduced
A gloomy and pessimistic future view
Guilt and feeling useless
The existence of ideas or actions that endanger themselves even to suicide attempts
Sleep disorders, both difficulty sleeping and sleeping continuously
Decreased appetite

Stress and depression are reciprocally related to cardiovascular disease or heart disease. There are at least 2 studies that show that depression can increase a person's potential for a heart attack. Whang and colleagues report that depression has a strong association with the incidence of fatal Coronary Heart Disease (CHD) in women aged 30-55 years, who previously did NOT have a history of CHD. Likewise Wassertheil-Smoller et al in his research on women post menopause WITHOUT a history of previous cardiovascular disease. The same results show that depressive symptoms are significantly associated with an increased risk of death from a heart attack.

How can depression increase the potential for a heart attack?

When a person experiences depression, there is an imbalance of chemical compounds (neurotransmitters) in the body. That is why someone looks depressed and powerless. In addition, there are 2 chemical pathways in the body that are in chaos. The first pathway is the autonomic nervous system that regulates blood pressure and blood vessels, while the second pathway is the HPA pathway, a pathway that connects the brain to the adrenal gland. This adrenal gland is a hormone factory, so if this plant is in trouble it will result in hormonal imbalances in the body.

On the first track, the disorder causes the release of catecholamine compounds. This compound is responsible for many things. As a result of the large number of catecholamines, platelets (blood chips) increase which eventually makes the blood thicken. In addition, blood vessel damage occurs due to the large amount of catecholamines in the blood. This causes blood pressure to increase and the heart's ability to decrease. This combination is the right combination to make a blockade in the blood vessels leading to the heart, so that heart attacks in depressed people cannot be avoided.

On the second track, chaos in the hormone plant causes the release of cortisol compounds. Cortisol "calls" many compounds that cause inflammation in blood vessels. Damage to blood vessels makes it easier for "stuck" fat and blocks that cause a heart attack. These two mechanisms make it quite clear that depressed people have a higher potential for heart attack than normal people. It is the changes in compounds in the body that play a role in this.

How do you prevent a heart attack in a depressed person?

The rehabilitation program is the best choice for people in the depression phase. This program is easy and inexpensive to do, including regulation of body weight, increased physical activity and social support and cessation of smoking habits.

Physical activity is also beneficial to reduce various risk factors for heart attack and reduce the risk of depression. Regular physical activity can also distract a woman from her smoking habits, while helping her to maintain weight and control other risk factors. Even so social support is very helpful for depression sufferers in order to find confidence and return to socializing and doing activities normally. The faster the depression phase ends, the smaller the potential for a heart attack.

Antidepressants also help relieve symptoms of depression. Therefore, mentoring by psychiatrists also has a big role. Through taking medication and regular control, people in the depression phase do not need to experience a heart attack that might aggravate the depression phase.

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