Heart Disease and Depression: Is Culture a Factor?

This article seeks to review and discuss the evidence linking depression, coronary heart disease (CHD), and culture.

PsychInfo, CINAHL, PubMed, and Google were searched for pertinent evidence linking depression, culture, and CHD, and retrieved articles were analyzed using thematic content analysis.

Identified themes were the followings: depression is a factor in development and prognosis of CHD and affects the capacity to self-manage and adhere to treatment recommendations; culture mediates mental health/illness representations and treatment-seeking behaviors; screening and assessment of depression can be affected by cultural factors; and there is a need for culturally appropriate screening and therapeutic strategies.

As depression is a predictor and moderating variable in the genesis and progression of CHD, understanding how factors such as culture affect screening and management of the disease is important to inform the development of culturally and linguistically competent strategies that ensure accurate screening, detection, and treatment of depression in cardiac patients in clinical practice.