Treatment of Depression with psychological therapy linked to lower cardiovascular disease risk

According to a research that was published in the European Heart Journal, treating depression with psychological therapies may lower the risk of cardiovascular disease (CV), particularly in individuals under the age of 60.

In a retrospective cohort study of 636 955 people in England who were over 45 years old, the association between reliable improvement in depressive symptoms following psychological therapy and a 12% reduction in cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk at any given time was stronger in people over 60.

According to the study's lead author, Céline El Baou, "people with depression are up to 72% more likely to develop cardiovascular disease (CVD) in their lifetime." "At this time, it is unknown whether successful therapy outcomes may be linked to lowered cardiovascular risk."

El Baou and coauthors examined incidence of new-onset CVD, coronary heart disease (CHD), stroke, and all-cause mortality in 636 955 people who completed a course of psychotherapy after a median follow-up of 3.1 years using linked national electronic health record databases in England and national hospital episode and mortality databases. The average age of research participants was 55 years old, and 65.6% of them were women.

Four years after receiving psychological therapy, individuals with reliable symptom improvement had an absolute risk of 7.64%, while patients with reliable symptom improvement had an absolute risk of 8.38%.

Results revealed that compared to those who did not reliably improve following psychological treatment, the probability of suffering any CV incident was lowered by 12% (hazard ratio [HR] 0.88, 95% CI 0.86-0.89). Additionally, consistent relief from depressive symptoms was linked to a decreased risk of CHD (HR 0.89, 95% CI 0.86-0.92), stroke (HR 0.88, 95% CI 0.83-0.94), and all-cause death (HR 0.81, 95% CI 0.78-0.84) after the median follow-up of 3.1 years.

Researchers found that participants under the age of 60 had a 15% decrease in CVD risk (HR 0.85, 95% CI 0.82-0.87) compared to individuals beyond the age of 60 who had a 6% reduction in risk (HR 0.94, 95% CI 0.91-0.97).

These results are significant because they imply that effective outcomes of evidence-based psychological therapies may go beyond mental health and have long-term positive effects on physical health, especially for those under the age of 60.

Future research may concentrate on analyzing the causation of the connection by improving sample representativeness, including populations presently underrepresented in mental health care, and aligning observational work well with criteria for approximation causality.

Reference:

El Baou C, Desai R, Cooper C, et al. Psychological therapies for depression and cardiovascular risk: Evidence from national healthcare records in England. Eur Heart J. Published online April 18, 2023. doi:10.1093/eurheartj/ehad188.