Epidemiology of Cardiovascular Disease and Depression

Depression is common in cardiac patients, with 20 % of patients meeting the criteria for major depressive disorder or experiencing depressive symptoms. The relationship between cardiovascular diseases is likely to be bidirectional: people with depression are more likely to develop cardiovascular disease, while patients with cardiovascular disease and co-morbid depression have worse cardiac outcomes than those who are not depressed. The influence is not only restricted to cardiovascular outcomes; however, the impact upon psychosocial outcomes such as quality of life and social participation can be just as deleterious. This relationship can also be moderated by socio-demographic and psychosocial risk factors, including gender, age, previous history of depression, social isolation and functional impairment. This chapter will focus on the epidemiology and relationship between depression and cardiovascular disease, the effects on psychiatric and cardiac outcomes and the known risk factors.