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Depression has repeatedly been found to increase morbidity and mortality in patients with coronary heart disease. These researchers prospectively interviewed 453 patients with acute coronary syndromes (mean age, 61) to assess whether major depressive episode (MDE), depressed mood, and anhedonia were associated with later all-cause mortality (ACM) and major adverse cardiac events (MACEs; e.g., hospitalization for myocardial infarction or unstable angina, or urgent coronary revascularization).
At an average of 10 months after the interviews, there were 17 deaths and 50 MACEs. The rate of these events combined was almost three times higher in patients with an MDE at baseline than in those without (35% vs. 12%). Anhedonia, whether assessed by th…