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Investigators:
Dr Alan Goble, Dr Marian Worcester, Dr Barbara Murphy, Dr Peter Elliott, Heart Research Centre; Professor Erika Froelicher, University of California; Professor David Hare, Austin Hospital.
We recently
completed a 25 year follow-up of men who had a heart attack during the early
1980s. The aim of this project, partially funded by beyondblue, was to investigate the impact of depression after a
cardiac event upon long-term survival.
Effect
of depression
Up to
15-20% of patients experience major depression after a heart attack. Milder depressive symptoms, similar to a
bereavement reaction, are even more common. Some, but not all, past studies
have found that premature death is more common in depressed patients. However,
it has been difficult to establish a causal link between depression and early
death.
Original
study
For the
original study, information about patients was collected in hospital and at
intervals during the first year via interviews, self-report questionnaires,
clinical assessment and treadmill tests. Depression was assessed using the Beck
Depression Inventory.
Tracking
patients
Tracking
patients after 25 years was a huge task. The Australian National Death Index
was the primary source of information about the deaths of most patients. To
locate patients not listed as dead, we consulted hospital records, as well as
the cardiologists, cardiac surgeons and general practitioners who had
previously treated these patients. For those patients or spouses not still
living at their original addresses, an extensive search was made by post within
Victoria and elsewhere to people listed in telephone directories with the same
surname.
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