Who is at risk of post-MI depressive symptoms?

The aim of this study was to identify cardiologic, psychologic, and demographic risk factors in two groups of patients with post-myocardial infarction (MI) depressive symptoms (in-hospital and during the postdischarge year).

Patients admitted for MI were assessed for depressive symptoms with the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) during hospitalization and 3, 6, and 12 months post-MI. We contrasted both groups with nondepressed patients.

Pre-MI vital exhaustion, living alone, history of depressive disorder, history of MI, poor performance on exercise tolerance testing, and female gender were significantly and independently associated with in-hospital depressive symptoms. Pre-MI vital exhaustion, history of depressive disorder, female gender, poor ejection fraction, and longer hospital stay were independent predictors of the development of postdischarge depressive symptoms.

Post-MI depressive symptoms seem largely driven by the psychological and social consequences of the MI in patients vulnerable to depression, as indexed by a history of depression and vital exhaustion.