depression can literally “break” your heart

For ages, poets have opined about heartbreak, and composers have set their abject misery to music. But if you assume “broken hearts” are simply the stuff of poems, songs, or sadly-ever-after movies, you’re wrong. There really is something to the metaphor, says University of Cincinnati professor Lawson R. Wulsin, MD. He claims that an emotionally broken heart can actually lead to a physically broken heart.

“There is a connection between depression and heart disease, and by understanding it, we can help break the cycle,” says Dr. Wulsin, author of Treating the Aching Heart: A Guide to Depression, Stress, and Heart Disease. "Studies have revealed that depression not only contributes to heart disease, it can adversely affect the treatment of it. But by restoring people’s emotional health, we can help restore their physical health.”

The statistics are unnerving. Both depression and heart disease affect about one in four people, making each common in all population groups. Despite heart disease being the number one cause of death in the world, little has been written about the dangerous relationship between the two conditions.

Although having depression does not guarantee that one will develop heart disease, depression increases the chances of developing coronary heart disease by about 75 percent, often through other predisposing conditions such as diabetes and high blood pressure. “People with heart disease or diabetes consistently report higher rates of depression than do people with no chronic illness,” Dr. Wulsin says. “This link between depression and heart disease is independent of the effects of other risk factors, such as age, smoking, poverty, or physical inactivity.”

In fact, studies are clear that the effect of depression on heart disease is part of the larger problem of chronic stress, including anxiety disorders and substance abuse, that worsen the course of heart disease.

So how can you mend a broken heart? While researchers continue to delve into the many factors involved with the mind-body health connection, patients must take personal responsibility to ensure they are doing everything possible to maximize their physical and mental health. Understanding the complex relationship between depression and heart disease will increase your chances of living a long, healthy life.

“The most powerful test of how well we understand an illness is how well we treat it,” Dr. Wulsin says. “The good news for people with depression and heart disease is that for both illnesses, treatments work well.”

Treating the Aching Heart: A Guide to Depression, Stress, and Heart Disease (Vanderbilt University Press, 2007), by Lawson R. Wulsin, MD, Professor of Psychiatry and Family Medicine at the University of Cincinnati, is available at bookstores nationwide, from major online booksellers, and direct from the publisher at vanderbiltuniversitypress.com.