The state of “I don’t want anything”, depression and weakness are not as harmless as they might seem. The older we get, the more dangerous it is to be depressed, scientists say.
According to them, people over 50 who suffer from chronic depression (for more than two years) are at nearly double the risk of having a stroke. For your information: stroke (blockage by a blood clot or rupture of a cerebral vessel) is today one of the main causes of death in developed countries.
“Exactly how the link between depression and stroke works is yet to be explored,” says study author Paola Gilsantz of the Harvard T.H. Chen. “But even now it seems clear that the cause lies either in behavior (for example, that those suffering from depression are less active and smoke more) or in biological factors (for example, inflammatory processes in the body, high blood pressure, diabetes, elevated levels of cholesterol).
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For 12 years, scientists collected data on 16 people who had no vascular problems before the start of the study. They were interviewed every two years to determine whether they had symptoms of depression and whether they had had a stroke. For 178 years, 12 strokes happened to the participants in the experiment. It was noted that participants with symptoms of depression, which were found in two interviews in a row, experienced strokes almost twice as often. Notably, the association of stroke with depression was stronger in people younger than 1192 years of age. Those who showed signs of depression in only one interview, and then the condition was cured or resolved on its own, still had a 65% increased risk of stroke compared to those who did not have depression at all.
This fact surprised scientists, who expected that after the treatment of depression, the risk of stroke decreases. However, it remained high for at least another two years. Especially in women.
The authors of the study emphasize the importance of early diagnosis and treatment of depression – before the effects of its destructive effects on the body accumulate.
P. Gilsanz et al. «Changes in Depressive Symptoms and Incidence of First Stroke Among Middle‐Aged and Older US Adults», Journal of the American Heart Association, May 2015.