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Published on: April 19, 2019

Impact of cardiac rehabilitation on depression and its associated mortality

Richard V Milani1, Carl J Lavie

  • 1Department of Cardiology, Ochsner Medical Center, New Orleans, La 70121, USA. rmilani@ochsner.org

The American Journal of Medicine
|September 4, 2007
PubMed

Insights

Cardiac rehabilitation significantly reduces depressive symptoms in coronary patients. This intervention also lowers the excess mortality associated with depression after cardiac events, even with modest fitness improvements.

Area of Science:

  • Cardiology
  • Psychiatry
  • Rehabilitation Medicine

Background:

  • Depression post-cardiac events correlates with increased mortality.
  • The efficacy of cardiac rehabilitation in mitigating this depression-related mortality is not well-established.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To assess the impact of cardiac rehabilitation on depression in coronary patients.
  • To determine if cardiac rehabilitation reduces depression-associated mortality.

Main Methods:

  • A cohort of 522 coronary patients undergoing cardiac rehabilitation was compared to 179 controls.
  • Depressive symptoms were measured pre- and post-rehabilitation.
  • Mortality was tracked over a mean follow-up of 1296 days.

Main Results:

  • Depressive symptoms decreased by 63% post-rehabilitation (17% to 6%).
  • Depressed patients completing rehabilitation had 73% lower mortality compared to controls.
  • Reductions in depression and mortality were linked to fitness improvements, with modest gains being sufficient.

Conclusions:

  • Cardiac rehabilitation effectively reduces depressive symptoms in patients after coronary events.
  • The intervention significantly lowers the excess mortality linked to post-event depression.
  • Even minor improvements in physical fitness during rehabilitation yield substantial benefits for depression and mortality.
Abstract

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