Increased risk of heart disease caused by diabetes and depression

Suffering from both type 2 diabetes and depression increases the risk of death as a result of a heart condition. Diabetes and depression as separate factors are widely known to increase heart disease deaths, but when they combine together they are more likely to cause death.
Over 900 patients with coronary artery disease were studies by a team of psychologists from Duke University Medical Centre. They found that people with both type 2 diabetes and depression were more likely to die than those without these conditions. Amongst type 2 diabetics, high depression scores could increase risks by 20 or 30 per cent.
Researcher Anastasia Georgiades, PhD, reportedly commented: “We found a trend showing that the probability of death increases as the level of depression increases in diabetic patients with coronary artery disease. Our data appear to show an important interaction between type 2 diabetes and depression, meaning that physicians should closely monitor their heart patients who have both of these disorders.”
She continued: “There is some sort of synergistic effect between type 2 diabetes and depression that we don’t fully understand. In our analysis, we controlled for factors that could influence mortality, such as heart disease severity and age. For whatever reasons, these patients were still at higher risk of dying, and future research will aim to investigate the mechanisms for this association.”