Hypertension and Coronary Heart Disease : Their Relationship with Depression(Symposium/Relation between Depression and Life Style-related Disease)

Abstract

It is well known that depression is complicated with various life style-related diseases. In cardiovascular diseases, hypertension and coronary heart diseases (CHD) are frequently associated with depression, and depression worsens the prognosis of basal heart diseases. Depression had been considered a behavioral risk factor for life style-related diseases. But recently, functional changes in the autonomic nervous, hormonal, and immune system under depression, causes life style-related diseases. Thereafter, intervention trials to treat depression of the patients with CHD have been made. It was clarified that intervention to treat depressive patients with CHD decreased depressive symptoms, but didn't affect the prognosis of CHD. In the treatment for the cardiovascular patients with depression, heart disease and depression should not be treated separately, but should be treated from the bio-behavio-psychosocial view points, that is, holistic medical care.