Anxiety, depression may accelerate heart disease risk, especially for younger women
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Key takeaways:
- Adults with anxiety or depression are more likely to develop conditions, such as hypertension, that raise heart disease risk.
- The association was more pronounced for women aged 50 years and younger.
ATLANTA — Younger women with a diagnosis of anxiety or depression are at markedly higher risk for developing conditions that increase CVD risk, such as hypertension, hyperlipidemia and diabetes, researchers reported.
The findings were presented at the American College of Cardiology Scientific Session.
“Anxiety and depression increase the risk for CVDs such as heart attack and stroke, partly through the accelerated development of CV risk factors, such as hypertension, hyperlipidemia and diabetes,” Giovanni Civieri, MD, cardiologist and research fellow at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School and a doctoral student at the University of Padua in Italy, told Healio. “Among younger women, the anxiety/depression-associated risk for developing new CV risk factors is significantly higher than that in other age and sex groups. This could explain why the association between anxiety/depression and CVD is strong among younger females.”
Civieri and colleagues analyzed data from 71,214 adults without a history of CVD at baseline, all enrolled in the Mass General Brigham Biobank and followed for 10 years. The median age of participants was 50 years and 55.3% were women. Researchers assessed participants for incidence of anxiety and depression and cardiometabolic conditions including hypertension, hyperlipidemia, diabetes and CVD events.
During follow-up, 38% of participants developed hypertension, hyperlipidemia or diabetes.
Researchers found that, compared with adults who did not have anxiety or depression, those with an anxiety or depression diagnosis were 55% more likely to develop a condition that increased CVD risk (HR = 1.55; 95% CI, 1.47-1.64; P < .001). Sensitivity analyses showed the risk was more pronounced for women vs. men (P < .001) and adults aged 50 years or younger vs. older adults (P < .001).
“In absolute terms, younger females were less likely to develop a new CV risk factor but suffered the greatest impact of anxiety/depression,” the researchers wrote in an abstract.
Among younger women, developing CV risk factors explained 22.1% of anxiety/depression-associated major adverse CV event risk compared with 17.7% in the overall cohort (P < .05).
“While we often feel that young women are the ‘safe group’ with regard to CVD, our study suggests that if a younger woman has depression or anxiety, we should screen for CV risk factors to reduce her risk,” Civieri told Healio. “It is unknown whether mental health treatments, such as antidepressant medications or psychotherapy, could help reduce CVD risk. Future studies should address whether the treatment of anxiety and depression reduces the risk for developing new CV risk factors and whether this effect is more pronounced among younger women.”
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Civieri G, et al. Abstract 1331-218. Presented at: American College of Cardiology Scientific Session; April 6-8, 2024; Atlanta.
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