MedWire News: Patients receiving hospital treatment for a heart attack are more likely to experience early complications if they also suffer from depression, research shows.

The findings indicate the importance of early depression treatment, as well as reducing blood pressure and cholesterol levels, in patients receiving hospital treatment for heart attacks, says the team.

"There is good evidence that if a person has depression after a heart attack, they are more likely to die from cardiac causes in the following months and years," explained lead researcher Dr Jeff Huffman, from Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts, USA.

But he added: "No one had yet studied whether depression impacts cardiac outcomes immediately after a heart attack - the time we see the most complications."

To address this, Dr Huffman and team studied 129 heart attack patients who were being treated for their condition at Massachusetts General Hospital. Each participant was interviewed within 72 hours of having a heart attack to determine if he or she suffered from depression or anxiety.

In total, 17 of the participants were diagnosed with major depression that lasted for at least 2 weeks.

Analysis revealed that patients with major depression were significantly more likely to experience heart rhythm problems, congestive heart failure or a second heart attack while receiving treatment for an initial heart attack than those without depression.

Dr Huffman concluded: "The results suggest that physicians should be especially mindful of treating depression in patients with cardiac risk factors.

"They also suggest close in-hospital monitoring of heart attack patients with major depression given this increased risk for complications."

The research will be published in a forthcoming issue of the journal Psychosomatics.