Depression and heart disease - measuring the extra burden

There is a well-established link between depression and heart disease and it is known that depression can impede people's recovery after a heart attack. However, there has been little research into the level of the burden that depression in heart-attack victims places on health services. A Canadian study of nearly 2,000 heart-attack patients found that depression contributed to a 9% increase in heart-related hospitalizations, a 24% increase in total re-hospitalization days and a 43% increase in non-heart-related hospitalization visits following discharge after a heart attack. The study also found that depression caused the greatest increase in those patients with a lower cardiac illness severity.

You can read more about this research at

http://psychcentral.com/news/2008/10/22/link-between-depression-and-cardiac-care/3177.html