Study of prevalence of depression and impact of depression in patients following acute myocardial infarction

Background: Depression has been found to be associated with cardiovascular diseases in various studies done in different parts of the world. Whether depression really develops after an attack of acute myocardial infarction (AMI) in hospitalised patients was not evaluated in this region of our country prior to the current work. Aim: To evaluate the prevalence of depression and impact of depression in AMI patients during the period of hospitalisation. Materials and method: Patients were recruited for the study after fulfilling the selection criteria and who had documented AMI within four to five days of hospitalisation. Informed consent of the patient and ethical committee clearance was obtained. To collect data semi-structured interview schedule was used. Assamese versions of 21 self-report items Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and observer-rated 17 items Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HAM-D) were administered to 50 AMI patients. Data were analysed with chi-square test, Pearson coefficient of correlation, and student t test wherever applicable. p-value<0.05 was considered test of significance in this study. Result: Fifty cases of AMI were evaluated from August 2007 to July 2008. Thirty six per cent of AMI patients and 34% of AMI patients were found to have depression as per BDI and HAM-D scales respectively. Depression has an impact on duration of hospital stay significantly (p<0.019) but not on gender difference (p=0.089). Correlation of mean scores of both HAM-D and BDI scales was done by Pearson coefficient of correlation and was found to be significant at .01 level. Conclusion: Depression was found to be high in AMI patients during the period of hospitalisation in both the depression rating scales and it has an impact on prognosis of the patients.