Feeling Depressed After A Heart Attack

If you have had a heart attack, you may be experiencing depression. Did you realize that your mood can also be affecting your heart health? Depression causes a lot of problems for people with heart disease: more days in bed, more visits to the doctor, more ER visits, less enjoyment of life, more medical complications, and a higher risk of death. Untreated depression can actually double the risk of another cardiac event after a heart attack! How can you tell if you might be depressed? Here are some of the symptoms to look for:

Do you feel sad, down, or blue most of the time?
Have you stopped enjoying activates that you used to enjoy?
Is your energy very low or are you having problems moving at a normal pace?
Do you have problems concentrating?
Has your appetite or sleep patterns changed?
Do you feel worthless or excessively guilty?
Have you been having thoughts about hurting or killing yourself?

If you have been experiencing these symptoms regularly, you may have depression, and depression is bad for your heart.

Depressed people tend to have a poorer diet, use tobacco more, exercise less, have more stress, and don’t socialize as much. All of these contribute to an increased risk of another heart attack. Depressed people also don’t participate in cardiac rehabilitation as much and are three times more likely to not take their medications as prescribed.

Once depression is treated, people tend to have better mood, better quality of life, and take their heart medication more regularly after having and heart attack. There are many medications that are safe and effective for treating depression in people with CHD. For people who don’t want to use medicine, there are forms of therapy that can be equally effective. Some people respond very well to medication or therapy alone, but using both can lead to longer lasting improvement of depression.

People with depression need monitor their heart problems more closely. This may mean more frequent visits to the cardiologist and more frequent blood tests and ECGs. People who are depressed have a harder time taking medications regularly, so it’s important to talk to your doctor about ways to make taking medication easier. Using a weekly pill box makes it easy to see when you’ve taken your medicine. If you have to take several medications daily, your doctor may be able to simplify things by prescribing a combination pill or a medication that only need to be taken once daily. Depression is not uncommon – if you think you have some of the symptoms above, make an appointment with your doctor.