Online A free and confidential service of Yale-New Haven Hospital. Using your own criteria, you can request information from a database of 900 area physicians who have registered to participate. We would be happy to assist you in scheduling an appointment with a member of the hospital's medical staff. Depression's role in heart disease Several studies have shown it's not uncommon for heart attack patients to experience mild or moderate depression. For many years we thought this depression was a natural reaction to the experience of having a heart attack, but new evidence indicates it is not.
Depression is a risk factor for a first heart attack.
We are now learning depression is, in fact, a risk factor for a first heart attack. A significant percentage of patients who have a history of major depression go on to have heart attacks or die of sudden cardiac death. It is not normal or natural to be depressed after a heart attack, but some people, particularly those who may have experienced depression in the past, do become depressed and they may become chronically depressed. Reason for connection not well understood There are two leading schools of thought to explain the depression-heart disease connection. One holds the development of heart disease may be affected by biochemical changes that occur in depressed people such as the release of stress hormones.