A new study finds heart patients who become depressed are more prone to heart failure (HF) -- a condition in which the heart can't pump enough blood throughout the body.

The study is the first to investigate the influence of depression after heart disease on the likelihood of developing HF.

"Our data suggest that depression is an important and emerging risk factor for heart failure among patients with coronary heart disease," Heidi May of Intermountain Medical Center in Utah, whose study appears in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology in the April 21 issue, said in a statement.

The researchers studied nearly 14,000 people with clogged heart arteries. None of them had heart failure or depression at the time of their diagnosis. Patients were tracked until they developed heart failure or died.

When the researchers checked heart failure rates among the 1,377 people, the incidence of heart failure in that group was double the rate among those who did not have depression. The increased incidence was lower after adjustment for other risk factors, such as high blood pressure and diabetes, but it was still 50 percent higher.

Medication records were available for 7,719 people in the study, and those records showed no difference in the incidence of heart failure between people prescribed antidepressants and those not prescribed the drugs.

The lesson for physicians, May said, is that there is increased danger for people with heart disease and depression, even if they take medicine that reduces the symptoms of depression.

(Agencies via Xinhua April 15, 2009)