A new study has found that major depression and anxiety can greatly increase a heart disease patient's risk of repeated heart attacks.
Researchers from McGill University and Universite de Montreal interviewed more than 800 people with coronary artery disease, all of whom had been discharged from hospital two months previously.
They found that 27 per cent of interviewees suffered from depression and 41 per cent showed signs of anxiety.
Principal investigator Professor Nancy Frasure-Smith revealed: "We found that both major depression and generalised anxiety disorder were more common in cardiac patients than in the general community.
"On average, cardiac patients without these disorders had about a 13 per cent chance of a repeated cardiac event over two years, compared to 26 per cent of those with either major depression or anxiety."
The findings are published in the Archives of General Psychiatry and suggest that heart patients should receive "the best treatment for both their cardiac and psychiatric conditions", the researchers concluded.
A new study has found that major depression and anxiety can greatly increase a heart disease patient's risk of repeated heart attacks.
