Washington: Antidepressants and other psychiatric medications are associated with an almost doubled risk of premature death in patients with heart conditions, according to a recent study.
The findings were published in the 'European Journal of Cardiovascular Nursing'. "Our study shows that the use of antidepressants and other psychiatric medications is common in those with heart conditions. In addition, almost one in three patients had symptoms of anxiety. Patients with cardiac illnesses should be systematically assessed for mental disorders, and asked whether they use psychotropic medications and for what reason," said study author Dr Pernille Fevejle Cromhout of Copenhagen University Hospital, Denmark.
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"It is important to remember that being prescribed a psychotropic drug is an indication of a mental disorder, which might in itself contribute to an increased risk of death," said Dr Cromhout.
"Further research is needed to evaluate whether the higher mortality is due to the use of psychotropic medication or the underlying mental illness," Dr Cromhout added.
Previous studies have found an association between symptoms of anxiety and poor health outcomes, including death, in patients with cardiac disease. This study explored whether this link might be explained by the use of psychotropic medication.
The study enrolled 12,913 patients hospitalised for ischaemic heart disease, arrhythmias, heart failure or valvular heart disease from the DenHeart national survey. Participants completed a questionnaire at hospital discharge and were classified as having anxiety symptoms if they scored eight or higher on the anxiety subscale of the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS-A).
Information on medications was obtained using national registers. Patients were defined as users of psychotropic drugs if they had collected at least one prescription during the six months prior to hospital admission of benzodiazepines, benzodiazepine-like drugs, antidepressants or antipsychotics.
Patients were followed up for one year following hospital discharge for all-cause death.
The researchers found that 2,335 participants (18 per cent) redeemed at least one prescription for psychotropic medication during the six months prior to hospital admission. The most commonly used drugs were benzodiazepines (68 per cent) and antidepressants (55 per cent). The use of psychotropic medications was higher among women, older patients, smokers, widowed patients, those with less education, and patients with greater numbers of co-existing health problems.
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Nearly one-third of cardiac patients (32 per cent) were classified as having anxiety. Psychotropic drug use was twice as high in patients with anxiety (28 per cent) compared to those without anxiety (14 per cent). A total of 362 patients (3 per cent) died within the first year after discharge from the hospital. The one-year death rate was significantly higher in users of psychotropic medication (6 per cent) compared with non-users (2 per cent).
-PTC News
