People who suffer a heart attack and become depressed have a much higher risk of dying than non-depressed heart attack survivors, suggests new research.

The study, presented at the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology annual meeting on Saturday in Boca Raton, Fla., tracked, for six years, 360 heart attack patients who had become depressed.

Research suggests depressed people may be unable to regulate the inflammation in their bodies caused by stress-related hormones such as cortisol. Over time, this chronic state of inflammation can exacerbate heart disease.
(CBC)

It found that those people who remained depressed in the first six months of recovery were twice as likely to die as patients who recovered from their depression.

"There is an unequivocal link between depression and heart disease, but it is not clear what causes this link," said Alexander Glassman, professor of Psychiatry at Columbia University, College of Physicians and Surgeons.

Glassman believes that depressed people may be unable to regulate the inflammation in their bodies caused by stress-generated hormones such as cortisol. Over time, this chronic state of inflammation can exacerbate heart disease by increasing the speed at which the arteries of the heart become clogged.