Depressed men have higher risk of heart disease death

Researchers have found a link between depression and heart disease but only depressed men are more likely to die from a heart-related illness.

The Ohio State University study showed that depressed women were not more likely to die of heart disease than women who were not depressed.

Researchers looked at 5,007 women and 2,886 men enrolled in a 10-year national health and nutrition survey. About one-sixth of the women and one-tenth of the men had clinical depression at the outset. The participants did not have heart disease in 1982 to 1984 when the study began. They were monitored until the study's end in 1992.

Scientists found that depressed women had a 73 per cent greater risk for heart attacks and other heart diseases than women who weren't depressed but they weren't at a higher risk of dying from heart disease.

But for depressed men, the risk of heart disease was 71 per cent higher and they had more than double the risk of dying from heart disease than men who weren't depressed.

Previous research has found that stress hormones may be triggered during depression. They can then constrict blood vessels and may lead to blockage of the arteries.

But scientists couldn't say why depressed men have a higher risk of dying from heart disease compared to their female counterparts.

The study appears in Monday's Archives of Internal Medicine.