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Treating depression may be just as important for your heart as taking care of high cholesterol.
A new study from researchers at Intermountain Healthcare found that for patients with moderate to severe depression, taking antidepressants reduces the risk of heart disease more than taking a cholesterol-lowering drug, or a combination of the two.
The research "underscores the importance of depression as a risk factor for cardiovascular disease," said cardiovascular epidemiologist Heidi May, the lead researcher on the study, as well as "the importance of treating the depression so that it reduces the risk of a cardiovascular event."
Depression is often overlooked in assessing cardiovascular risk, May said, but the study shows that when it's treated, overall health may improve.
Researchers analyzed patient records and rates of death, coronary artery disease and stroke for more than 26,000 patients treated by Intermountain over a three-year period.
That data was compared to records for 5,311 patients identified as having moderate to severe depression based on a nine-question depression screening, which assessed factors such as mood, sleep and appetite.
The study doesn't address how antidepressants improve cardiovascular health, but May said she suspects they may change patients' behavior.
"When you're depressed, you tend not to want to go and do things. You're less apt to follow medical advice to exercise," May said. "If the depression is treated, you're more apt to follow good habits like exercising, or your diet choices might be better."
Improved heart health could also be a function of physiological changes, she added, but the literature is inconclusive.
Researchers found the most improvement in patients with more severe cases of depression, but not with milder mood symptoms.
May said she was surprised by the findings. She expected that antidepressants would be simply an added benefit for heart health, rather than actually improving cardiovascular symptoms.
"Treating depression appears to be very important," she said. "I don't know if you could say it's more important than treating cholesterol, but it's very important."
Screening for depression, then, could also be just as important, May added, since that is the first step to treating it.