J Heart Stroke | Volume 4, Issue 1 | Research Article | Open Access
Christine Harrer1, Nae-Yuh Wang2, James Fauerbach2, Una D McCann2 and Marlene S Williams2*
1Department of Cognitive Science, University of Vienna, Austria
2Department of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University, USA
*Correspondance to: Marlene S Williams
Fulltext PDFDepression often goes undiagnosed in patients with cardiovascular disease, which might be due to the particular symptoms in this group. We set out to characterize the features of depressive symptoms in two cohorts of patients with cardiovascular disease. We enrolled 287 patients admitted with cardiovascular disease; 152 had stable Coronary Artery Disease (CAD), and 135 had Acute Coronary Syndrome (ACS). Depression symptom severity was assessed using the Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II). Results from the BDI-II were analyzed by factor analysis in order to distinguish somatic and cognitive-affective symptoms. Somatic symptoms were more prevalent than cognitiveaffective symptoms in the entire group. Overall, ACS patients reported more severe somatic and cognitive-affective symptoms than patients in the stable CAD group. The most severe complaint in both groups was a change in sleeping patterns. The most frequently reported symptoms in both groups were loss of energy, fatigue, and altered sleep patterns, and occurred at similar rates in the two groups. Symptoms in males and females were reported at similar rates in both groups, with only a few exceptions. These findings highlight specific depressive symptoms that may assist in making the diagnosis of depression in cardiovascular disease patients.
Acute coronary syndrome; Beck Depression Inventory-II; Cardiovascular disease; Coronary artery disease; Depressive symptoms; Somatic and cognitive-affective symptoms
Harrer C, Wang N-Y, Fauerbach J, McCann UD, Williams MS. Characteristics of Depressive Symptoms in Cardiovascular Disease. J Heart Stroke. 2019; 4(1): 1055.