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Biomedical subjects

A S Jaffe

Publications and source records attributed to A S Jaffe.

152 records · Page 9Linked to original sources
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Severe depression is associated with markedly reduced heart rate variability in patients with stable coronary heart disease.

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between depression and heart rate variability in cardiac patients. METHODS: Heart rate variability was measured during 24-hour ambulatory electrocardiographic (ECG) monitoring in 40 medically stable out-patients with documented coronary heart disease meeting current diagnostic criteria for major depression, and 32 nondepressed, but otherwise comparable, patients. Patients discontinued beta-blockers and antidepressant medications at the time of study. Depressed patients were classified as mildly (n = 21) or moderately-to-severely depressed (n = 19) on the basis of Beck Depression Inventory scores. RESULTS: There were no significant differences among the groups in age, gender, blood pressure, history of myocardial infarction, diabetes, or smoking. Heart rates were higher and nearly all indices of heart rate variability were significantly reduced in the moderately-to-severely versus the nondepressed group. Heart rates were also higher and mean values for heart rate variability lower in the mildly depressed group compared with the nondepressed group, but these differences did not attain statistical significance. CONCLUSION: The association of moderate to severe depression with reduced heart rate variability in patients with stable coronary heart disease may reflect altered cardiac autonomic modulation and may explain their increased risk for mortality.

Aged↗
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Insomnia and depression prior to myocardial infarction.

Insomnia is common among patients who subsequently experience an acute myocardial infarction (MI), and is a major symptom of psychiatric depression. The purpose of this study was to determine what proportion of patients reporting insomnia prior to MI have depression. Of 70 patients with a recent MI, 27 (39%) reported having had insomnia for two weeks or longer prior to their MI, 13 of whom (48%) met diagnostic criteria for a major depressive episode (MDE). MDE accounted for a significant proportion of the patients reporting insomnia prior to MI (p less than 0.0001). Furthermore, those patients with insomnia who did not meet diagnostic criteria for MDE nevertheless had three times as many depressive symptoms, excluding sleep disturbance, as did those patients who did not experience insomnia prior to their MI (p less than 0.0009). The implications of this finding are discussed, as well as possible explanations for the relationship between insomnia, depression, and subsequent MI.

Aged↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Major depression in coronary artery disease patients with vs. without a prior history of depression.

Major depression (MD) is common in patients with coronary artery disease (CAD). Some of these patients have a history of prior depressive episodes, whereas others experience their first episode around the same time that their CAD is diagnosed. The purpose of this study was to determine whether there are systematic differences between these two subgroups of depressed patients. Of 39 patients with recently diagnosed CAD who met DSM-III-R criteria for MD, 17 (44%) had a prior history of MD. This subgroup had a higher proportion of females (p less than 0.003), more severe depression (p less than 0.004), were marginally younger (p = 0.08), and had slightly less severe CAD (p = 0.07) compared with those with no prior history of MD. These results support the hypothesis that there may be two distinctive subtypes of MD in patients with CAD. Additional studies are needed to determine whether these subgroups differ with respect to course, treatment, and relationship to the coronary artery disease.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Can treating depression reduce mortality after an acute myocardial infarction?

Major depression affects about one in five patients in the weeks after an acute myocardial infarction and is associated with an increased risk of cardiac morbidity and mortality. Consequently, there is considerable interest in the question of whether treating depression will improve medical prognosis in these patients. Safe, effective treatments for depression are available, but unless they also improve the underlying pathophysiological or behavioral mechanisms that contribute to cardiac morbidity and mortality, they may not have beneficial effects on prognosis. Altered cardiac autonomic tone is one of the leading candidate mechanisms. Unfortunately, a review of the available research reveals that cardiac autonomic tone often fails to normalize in patients treated for depression, and the research suggests that currently available treatments for depression will not necessarily improve cardiac event-free survival in patients who have had an acute myocardial infarction. Until there is convincing evidence that treatment can reduce the risk of cardiac morbidity and mortality, the principal reason to treat depression should continue to be to improve the quality of life of the patient who has had an acute myocardial infarction. Key words: depression, coronary heart disease, mortality.

Antidepressive Agents↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Change in heart rate and heart rate variability during treatment for depression in patients with coronary heart disease.

OBJECTIVE: Major depression is a common problem in patients with coronary heart disease (CHD) and is associated with an increased risk for cardiac morbidity and mortality. It is not known whether treating depression will improve medical prognosis in patients with CHD. Depression is also associated with elevated heart rate and reduced heart rate variability (HRV), which are known risk factors for cardiac morbidity and mortality that may explain the increased risk associated with depression. The purpose of this study was to determine whether treatment for depression with cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) is associated with decreased heart rate or increased HRV. METHODS: Thirty depressed patients with stable CHD, classified as either mildly or moderately to severely depressed, received up to 16 sessions of CBT. The 24-hour heart rate and HRV were measured in these patients and in 22 medically comparable nondepressed controls before and after treatment of the depressed patients. RESULTS: Average heart rate and daytime rMSSD (reflecting mostly parasympathetic activity) improved significantly in the severely depressed patients, but remained unchanged in the mildly depressed and the control patients. However, only rMSSD improved to a level comparable to the control patients. None of the remaining indices of HRV showed improvement. CONCLUSIONS: The results suggest that treating depression with CBT may reduce heart rate and increase short-term HRV. Thus, CBT may have a beneficial effect on a risk factor for mortality in depressed patients with coronary heart disease. A randomized, controlled study is needed to confirm these findings.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy↗
PubMedDate not supplied

New standard for the diagnosis of acute myocardial infarction.

Recently, the European Society of Cardiology and the American College of Cardiology met to discuss the diagnosis of acute myocardial infarction (AMI). The consensus document published advocated several changes. First, it was suggested that the preferred marker for the diagnosis of cardiac injury was troponin. It also emphasized that elevations of this sensitive marker did not define the mechanism of cardiac injury. Thus, a clinical determination that the mechanism for the troponin elevation is ischemic is essential for the diagnosis of AMI. This change will require clinicians to reorient their thinking about the use of cardiac markers. They will need to be cognizant of the analytic difficulties that many of the assays manifest and the large number of elevations that can occur because of other forms of cardiac injury, which can now be detected by this new more sensitive strategy. The current article will review the thinking that underpins the recommendations of the European Society of Cardiology/American College of Cardiology Task Force in the hope that it will improve clinicians' ability to implement this new strategy in a more facile manner.

Biomarkers↗