Death, Depression Link Stronger in Men
Health - Reuters
Death, Depression Link Stronger in Men
Fri Oct 4, 4:55 PM ET
By Dana Frisch
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Researchers have long known that elderly
people who are depressed are at greater risk of dying in a certain time period
than their more hopeful peers. Now new study findings suggest that men may be
more susceptible to this effect than women--although the link may not be as
strong as previously suspected.
"Doctors need to be more aware of the effect of depression on
physical health," said Dr. Melanie Abas, lead author and a consultant
psychiatrist on the Research and Audit in Mental Health Services Team at South
Auckland Health in New Zealand. She said doctors may not treat depression if a
patient is depressed due to an "understandable" cause, such as heart disease,
arthritis or loss of a spouse.
In the study, published in a recent issue of the British Journal of
Psychiatry, Abas and colleagues examined data collected from over 2,600
participants aged 65 to 75, all part of a high blood pressure trial in the UK
begun in the mid-1980s. Participants completed a psychiatric test when they
enrolled, which included questions about depression.
Abas and her team collected mortality data on the subjects from the
original trial for analysis. They found that almost 5% of participants were
depressed and of these, over one-third died in the intervening years.
When researchers considered risk factors, such as cardiovascular and
cognitive health into their analysis, they found men, and people between 65 and
69 with depression were more than twice as likely to die during the study as
those who were not depressed. There was no link between depression and mortality
in those 70 or older, according to the report.
Abas said that as people age, other factors like cardiovascular
health are more important causes for death and "swamp the effect of the ones
related to depression." This research confirms other work that indicated that
males with depression are more likely to die than females.
Severe depression normally affects about 3% of seniors and Abas said
it continues to be under-treated and under-recognized. It is not known yet
whether treatment of major depression would reduce mortality, Abas said.
SOURCE: British Journal of Psychiatry 2002;181:123-128.