You may order this complete guide or choose to subscribe to the complete library covering over 90 health and mental health problems. Heart Disease and Heart Attacks . Although some studies have failed to show an association between depression and heart disease in women, a recent study reported that depression is a significant risk factor for death in older womenparticularly from heart diseaseand the risk is equal to that from smoking or high blood pressure. Depression may even impair a patient's response to medication for heart disease. The more severe the depression, the more dangerous to the health, although some studies have indicated that even mild depression, including feelings of hopelessness, experienced over many years may harm the heart in people with no early signs of heart disease.
Depression appears to increase the risk for stroke in both women and women.
Researchers speculate that depression and stroke might have common patterns of development. Brain scans in the elderly, for example have reported greater atrophy in the brains of depressed individuals than in those of nondepressed ones. Some studies have linked past and current major depression with bone loss in women. Depression coincides with high pain scores in people with rheumatoid arthritis. In a study of elderly Japanese patients, the highest mortality rate occurred among those who were severely depressed, with cancer, suicide, and pneumonia as significant causes of death.