Psychiatria pre prax S1/2012

The prevalence of cardiovascular diseases and their risk factors in patients with depression

Introduction: Comorbidity of depression and cardiovascular diseases (CVD) is an important issue in clinical practice. It seems like both conditions influence each other and worsen the prognosis of each other. Objectives: The main objective of the study was to evaluate the prevalence of CVD and CVD risk factors in patients with depression hospitalized in Psychiatric Hospital of Phillipe Pinel in Pezinok, Slovakia, in 2009. The secondary objective was to compare some of demographic and clinical differencies between patients with CVD and without them. Participants and methods: Patients with depressive episode and reccurent depressive disordere participated in the study. To determine the occurance of observed variable we analyzed the case records until last hospitalization in 2009. We used the Chi-square test to determine the statistical significance of differences of observed parameters. Results: 175 patients were involved in our study. Lifetime prevalence rate of CVD was 75%. Arterial hypertension, atherosclerotic and ischaemic diseases and arrhytmias were the most common. Lifetime prevalence rate of CVD risk factors was 77%. Dyslipidaemias, smoking and obesity and metabolic syndrome were the most common risk factors. In comparison to patients without CVD, patients with CVD were older and they were more likely to suffer from dyslipidaemias, diabetes and obesity and metabolic syndrome. Conclusion: Depression may cause higher CVD, especially arterial hypertension. We hypothesize hat clinical forms of depression with hypercortisolaemia may be the underlying link.

Keywords: depression, cardiovascular diseases, prevalence, comorbidity.