Cardiovascular disease during childbirth associated to pre-natal depression

New research from the American Heart Association has revealed that women diagnosed with depression during pregnancy had a higher risk of being detected with the cardiovascular disease within two years of giving birth compared to women who did not have depression.
Published in the Journal of the American Heart Association, the research suggests that depression harms cardiovascular health in the general population. Both men and women who experience depression are more likely to develop heart disease in later life. Previous studies have shown that about 20 per cent of pregnant women also experience depression.
Lead study author Christina M. Ackerman-Banks, M.D., and assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology-maternal fetal medicine at Baylor College of Medicine and Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston, said, “We need to use pregnancy as a window to future health. Complications during pregnancy, including prenatal depression, impact long-term cardiovascular health. The postpartum period provides an opportunity to counsel and screen people for cardiovascular disease in order to prevent these outcomes.”
The association between prenatal depression and the detection of postpartum cardiovascular disease during the first two years following delivery is the focus of this investigation. The study aimed to calculate the overall risks of receiving a new cardiovascular disease diagnosis within two years following birth. After adjusting for potential confounding factors such as smoking, age at the time of delivery and pre-pregnancy diabetes, pre-pregnancy depression, pre-pregnancy hypertension and preeclampsia, the researchers estimated the risk of developing six major cardiovascular conditions. It included heart failure, ischemic heart disease, arrhythmia/cardiac arrest, cardiomyopathy, stroke and high blood pressure.
Ackerman-Banks said, "Even after excluding those with hypertensive disorders of pregnancy, those with depression during pregnancy still had a significantly higher risk of ischemic heart disease, arrhythmia, stroke, cardiomyopathy and new chronic hypertension postpartum.” "I recommend that anyone diagnosed with prenatal depression be aware of the implications on their long-term cardiovascular health, take steps to screen for other risk factors and consult with their primary care doctor in order to implement prevention strategies for cardiovascular disease," they said. "They should also be screened for Type 2 diabetes and high cholesterol, and implement an exercise regimen, healthy diet and quit smoking.”