By Cara Murez HealthDay Reporter
(HealthDay)
TUESDAY, Dec. 13, 2022 (HealthDay News) — Patients who undergo angioplasty and stenting to open clogged arteries in and around the center must also be screened for depression, based on a recent study.
Researchers found that depressed patients were less likely than their mentally healthy peers to take their prescribed medications, including beta-blockers, antiplatelets and statins.
These medications reduce the likelihood of one other heart attack or cardiovascular event after angioplasty and stenting (also called percutaneous coronary intervention, or PCI).
“It’s well-appreciated that depression carries antagonistic cardiovascular risk. We wanted to know higher why that’s the case,” said Dr. Jared Magnani, a cardiologist and associate professor of drugs on the University of Pittsburgh.
“We found that 10% to twenty% of people with depression were less prone to take their medicine after PCI, which is important because this group is at a better risk for serious complications or dying from a heart attack,” he said in a university news release.
Using medical claims data that included prescriptions filled at pharmacies, the researchers examined the records of greater than 124,000 patients who had the procedure and were also diagnosed with depression. Patients were followed for a yr.
Medication adherence may rely upon social aspects, equivalent to having the cash to cover medication costs, the study authors noted. Pharmacy access is one other challenge.
Prior research has found that a high percentage of individuals with coronary artery disease have or will develop depression. And other people with depression have a fourfold increased risk of heart disease.
“This study may help explain why cardiac patients with … depression are inclined to have higher rates of hospital readmissions and mortality than non-depressed cardiac patients,” said Dr. Bruce Rollman, professor of drugs at Pitt.
Magnani suggested that incorporating depression screenings into cardiology care could help improve medication adherence and health outcomes for patients with depression.
“We offer critical and sometimes lifesaving therapies to our patients with heart disease, after which prescribe therapies which we all know will help them. If depression challenges or reduces their ability to stick to those medications, then it is crucial to handle depression as a part of cardiovascular care and treatment,” Magnani said.
The findings were published online Dec. 12 in JAMA Network Open. This research was supported by the U.S. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.
SOURCE: University of Pittsburgh, news release, Dec. 12, 2022
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