Carotid Revascularization Is Associated With Improved Mood in Patients With Advanced Carotid Disease

To investigate the impact of carotid interventions on the mental well-being of patients with carotid stenosis.

Ongoing research highlights the effect of carotid interventions on neurocognitive function in patients with advanced carotid atherosclerosis. However, data regarding the impact of carotid revascularization on mood are scarce.

A total of 157 patients undergoing carotid revascularization were prospectively recruited. The primary outcome was depressive mood, evaluated preoperatively and at 1-, 6-, and 12-month postintervention using the long form of the geriatric depression scale (GDS-30) questionnaire. Other tests were also used to assess cognition at the respective timepoints. Statistical analyses were performed to assess the postoperative outcomes compared with baseline.

Baseline depression (GDS>9) was observed in 49 (31%) subjects, whereas 108 (69%) patients were not depressed (GDS≤9). The average preoperative GDS score was 15.42 ± 4.40 (14.2-16.7) and 4.28 ±2.9 (3.7-4.8) in the depressed and nondepressed groups, respectively. We observed a significant improvement in GDS scores within the depressed group at 1 month ( P =0.002), 6 months ( P =0.027), and 1 year ( P <0.001) postintervention compared with pre-op, whereas the nondepressed group had similar post-op GDS scores at all timepoints compared with baseline. Significant improvement in measures of executive function was seen in nondepressed patients at all 3 timepoints, whereas depressed patients showed an improvement at 1-year follow-up.

Our study highlights improvement in mood among patients with advanced carotid disease who screened positive for depression at baseline. Further studies with larger sample sizes are warranted to investigate the association between depression, carotid disease, and carotid intervention.