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Written By: Admin | Updated : February 25, 2012 4:13 PM IST
Taking cholesterol-lowering statins significantly reduces the risk of developing depression in patients with heart disease (Myocardial Infarction), according to researchers.
Researchers suggest that taking cholesterol lowering statin may help prevent depression. They then followed the 776 patients who were not depressed - 520 who were using statins and 256 who were not - for an additional six years. Of those taking statins, 18.5 per cent developed depression, compared with 28 per cent of those not on the drugs.
As the study progressed, the patients on statins became less likely to develop depression and the patients not on statins became even more depressed over time.
"This would suggest that statins may have some kind of long-term protective effect against depression, perhaps by helping to prevent atherosclerosis in the brain, which can contribute to depressive symptoms," a researcher noted.
She also noted that statins were favourable for the endothelium - the inner lining of the blood vessels making blood vessels less rigid and more adaptable to the body's changing needs. "The exact mechanism is not known, however, and requires further study," she said.
The researchers couldn't figure out why even after adjusting for mitigating factors such as smoking, lack of physical activity and cholesterol.
If more proof about statins beneficiary effects are found to counter depression they could be used to reduce the stressful symptoms associated with heart disease, thus improving cardiovascular health of the depressed patients.
If statins are definitively proven to protect against depression, they could be used to reduce the burden of depressive symptoms in patients with heart disease and, by extension, improve cardiovascular outcomes in depressed patients.
The researchers said that statins are the most commonly prescribed medication in the world as they are safe and tolerable by most people.
