(Press-News.org) U.S. veterans with depression had a 14% higher risk of heart failure, a new Vanderbilt University Medical Center-led study found, even after adjusting for traditional risk factors.
The study, “Depression and Heart Failure in U.S. Veterans,” was published May 8 in the journal JAMA Network Open.
Corresponding author Evan Brittain, MD, MSCI, professor of Medicine, said the study suggests implications for patient care.
“Patients and clinicians have another reason to screen for and treat depression in order to prevent potential future heart failure,” he said.
Brittain, who holds the Cardiology Division Directorship, noted the study is the largest of its kind, analyzing a sample of 3.4 million veterans from 2000 to 2015, who received care at Veterans Administration facilities. Participants were born between 1945 and 1965, met a medical home definition (had three outpatient visits within five years), and were free of heart failure at baseline. Participants were excluded if they were younger than 18, had unknown sex data, had death within one year of meeting the definition of medical home, or had received a heart transplant before or within one year of meeting that definition.
In addition to finding that patients with depression were 14% more likely to have heart failure, the study showed depressed veterans had a higher prevalence of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (12.9% vs. 7.1%), smoking status (43.2% vs. 34.7%) and alcohol use disorder (35.4% vs. 11.3%.)
“Among adults without significant health problems, depression was associated with an even higher risk (58%) of new heart failure during follow-up,” Brittain said.
The study concluded that further study is warranted to determine whether earlier diagnosis and treatment for depression can reduce the risk of heart failure.
“It is important to focus on assessment of depression treatment and its impact on heart failure or other cardiovascular diseases to further clarify this relationship and advise treating clinicians,” Brittain said.
Other Vanderbilt authors of the paper were Jamie Plaff, MD; Svetlana Eden, PhD; Suman Kundu, DSc, MSc; Jonah Garry, MD; Robert Greevy, PhD; and Matthew Freiberg, MD, MSc.
The study was supported by the National Institutes of Health grant R01HL146588.
END
Veterans with depression have increased risk of heart failure: Study
2025-05-08
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
Maternal cardiometabolic risk factors in pregnancy and offspring blood pressure at ages 2 to 18
2025-05-08
About The Study: In this cohort study of 12,480 mother-offspring pairs, researchers found that pre-pregnancy obesity, gestational diabetes, and hypertensive disorders of pregnancy, alone or in various combinations, were prospectively associated with higher offspring blood pressure at an early age and with an increased rate of blood pressure change from age 2 to 18 years, with the most profound associations with diastolic blood pressure among female offspring and with systolic blood pressure among Black offspring. These findings suggest that ...
Depression and heart failure in US veterans
2025-05-08
About The Study: In this cohort study, depression among veterans was associated with an increased hazard of incident heart failure after controlling for demographic and cardiovascular risk factors. Higher incident heart failure rates in patients with depression remained consistent in an otherwise low-risk cohort.
Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Evan L. Brittain, MD, MSc, email evan.brittain@vumc.org.
To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/
(doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2025.9246)
Editor’s Note: Please see the article for additional information, ...
Experiences of care and gaslighting in patients with vulvovaginal disorders
2025-05-08
About The Study: In this cross-sectional study, a patient-centered measure of adverse experiences in vulvovaginal care was developed. Participants reported common past experiences with gaslighting (a patient’s concerns are dismissed without proper evaluation) and substantial distress; they frequently considered ceasing care. There is an urgent need for education supporting a biopsychosocial, trauma-informed approach to vulvovaginal pain and continued development of validated instruments to quantify patient experiences.
Corresponding Author: To ...
Vitamin supplements slow down the progression of glaucoma
2025-05-08
A vitamin supplement that improves metabolism in the eye appears to slow down damage to the optic nerve in glaucoma. Promising results have been published in the journal Cell Reports Medicine. The researchers behind the study have now started a clinical trial on patients.
In glaucoma, the optic nerve is gradually damaged, leading to vision loss and, in the worst cases, blindness. High pressure in the eye drives the disease, and eye drops, laser treatment or surgery are therefore used to lower the pressure in the eye and thus slow down the disease. Unfortunately, however, the effect ...
Physics: Eggs less likely to crack when dropped side-on
2025-05-08
Eggs are less likely to crack when dropped on their side than when dropped vertically, finds research published in Communications Physics. Controlled trials simulating the ‘egg drop challenge’, a common classroom science experiment, found that the shell of an egg can better withstand an impact when dropped side-on.
The goal of the ‘egg drop challenge’ is for students to prevent an egg from cracking when dropped from a set height. A common belief is that an egg is stronger and less likely to crack when dropped vertically, with this assumption often ...
Study links maternal health risks during pregnancy to higher blood pressure in children
2025-05-08
Children born to mothers with obesity, gestational diabetes mellitus or a hypertensive disorder of pregnancy have higher systolic and diastolic blood pressure than children born to mothers without these risk factors, according to a new USC study. Among children whose mothers had at least one risk factor, blood pressure also rose more quickly between ages 2 and 18 compared to their peers. The findings, which suggest that blood pressure interventions could start as early as pregnancy, were just published in JAMA Network Open.
Across the ...
Building vaccines for future versions of a virus
2025-05-08
At a glance:
Researchers have created an AI tool called EVE-Vax that can predict and design viral proteins likely to emerge in the future.
For SARS-CoV-2, panels of these “designer” proteins triggered similar immune responses as real-life viral proteins that emerged during the pandemic.
EVE-Vax could give scientists valuable clues to help them develop vaccines that protect against future versions of rapidly evolving viruses.
Effective vaccines dramatically changed the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, preventing illness, reducing disease severity, and saving millions of ...
Incidence of several early-onset cancers increased between 2010 and 2019
2025-05-08
PHILADELPHIA – In the United States, breast, colorectal, endometrial, pancreatic, and kidney cancers are becoming increasingly common among people under age 50, according to a study published in Cancer Discovery, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR).
The findings may have implications for early-onset cancer prevention and screening efforts, the researchers noted.
Early-onset cancers, defined in this study as those diagnosed in individuals under age 50, are rising in incidence for reasons that remain unclear, according ...
The road to lenacapavir, a breakthrough HIV treatment
2025-05-08
In the hunt for a remedy, when the baton is passed from dedicated academic scientists to an innovative company to trusted community advocates, outcomes for society can be especially powerful.
Today, thanks to that sequence of contributions, the first HIV drug to offer long-lasting protection from infection — eliminating the need for people to take a daily pill — exists. For their role in ensuring that drug, lenacapavir, came to life and to market, the AAAS Mani L. Bhaumik Breakthrough of the Year Award is being awarded to Wesley Sundquist, chair of the University of Utah Department of Biochemistry; Moupali Das, vice president, Clinical Development, HIV Prevention ...
Engineering an antibody against flu with sticky staying power
2025-05-08
COLUMBUS, Ohio – Scientists have engineered a monoclonal antibody that can protect mice from a lethal dose of influenza A, a new study shows. The new molecule combines the specificity of a mature flu fighter with the broad binding capacity of a more general immune system defender.
The protective effect was enhanced by delivering the antibody in a nasal spray that disperses these molecules throughout the respiratory tract, where they stick to the slippery mucus lining to lie in wait for invading viral particles.
The ...