Another study, looking at people who had already had a heart attack, found that depressed patients had nearly 3.5 times the risk of dying within six months-making depression a strong predictor for death soon after a heart attack, seeking a biological explanation, the authors cite research showing that depressed patients have stickier platelets, the blood component that causes clotting. While more research is needed, the review suggest that depression is actually a major contributor to the course and severity of heart disease and that the two conditions in later life may well be synergistic, write Drs. Alexander H. Glassman and Peter A. Shapiro of Columbia University. Treatment for hypertension Continuous treatment with a medicine that relaxes the blood vessels appears to relieve primary pulmonary hypertension, a rare and often fatal type of high blood pressure. The treatment is prostacyclin, a naturally occuring substance that is also known as epoprostenol or flolan.
Patients carry a medicine through a permanantly implanted catheter in the chest.
Primary pulmonary hypertension strikes one or two people per million, primarily women in their 30s and 40s. Although its cause is usually unknown, it can be a rare side effect of the diet pills redux and fen-phen. The disease causes dangerously high blood pressure in the pulmonary artery, which connects the heart and the lungs. This can destroy the heart. Prostacyclin has already been approved by the US Food and Drug administration for three months of treatment, and the latest study was intended to udge the drug's long-term effects.