A study from the Royal Brompton in 2002. [1]
The authors retrospectively examined a cohort of 396 consecutive adult patients with a dilated cardiomyopathy. In all, 83 patients (21%) were clinically depressed, the majority of which (60%) were taking antidepressant therapy. After a follow-up period of 48 months, 83 (21%) patients died, 15 (4%) underwent cardiac transplantation and 130 (33%) were readmitted; 29 (35%) of the deaths and 40 (31%) of the readmissions were among clinically depressed patients. After 5 years, clinically depressed patients had significantly higher mortality and readmission rates than non-depressed.
Depression increases the risk of death and readmission in patients with heart failure secondary to non-ischaemic heart failure and appears to be greatest among patients with milder disease.
1 Farisa R, Purcell H, Henein MY, et al. Clinical depression is common and significantly associated with reduced survival in patients with non-ischaemic heart failure. Eur J Heart Fail 2002;4:541–51. doi:10.1016/S1388-9842(02)00101-0