Prognostic value of one-year course of symptoms of anxiety and depression in patients with coronary heart disease: Role of physical activity and unmet medical need

INTRODUCTION: Symptoms of depression and anxiety contribute to determining prognosis of patients with coronary heart disease. We evaluated the association of the one-year course of symptoms of anxiety and depressive symptoms with fatal and non-fatal cardiovascular disease-events during 10-year follow-up and assessed the utilization of anti-depressant and psycholeptic medication. METHODS: Prospective cohort study in coronary heart disease patients aged 30-70 years with stable coronary heart disease. Symptoms of anxiety and depression were evaluated at baseline and follow-up using the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale. Associations with fatal and non-fatal cardiovascular disease events were determined by a Cox-proportional hazards model. RESULTS: Nine hundred and ninety-six patients were included in this study. Of the 862 patients with a normal depression symptom score at baseline 10.3% had an increased score at one-year follow-up. Of those with an elevated symptom score at baseline, 62.7% still had an elevated score after one year. During follow-up (median 8.9 years) fatal and non-fatal cardiovascular disease events were observed in 152 patients. One year course of depressive symptoms was associated with cardiovascular disease events during follow-up (p-value for trend 0.029); for example, patients with an increase of depressive symptoms had a hazard ratio of 1.93 (95% confidence interval 1.08-3.34) compared with patients with a normal score at baseline as well as at one-year follow-up. However, if physical activity was considered as a covariate, the HRs attenuated and the association was no longer statistically significant. The utilization of anti-depressant medication in the overall population was low (overall 2%). CONCLUSIONS: The study supports a role of the one year course of symptoms of depression for long-term prognosis of patients with known coronary heart disease, which might be partly mediated by lack of physical activity.