RESEARCH from the University Hospital of Antwerp, Belgium, has given new meaning to the phrase, "he died of a broken heart". People who bottle up emotions of anger, anxiety and depression greatly increase their risk of dying young of heart attacks, Dr Johan Denollet and his team reported in The Lancet.
Ten years ago, they tested the personality of 303 men with coronary heart disease. Patients with a tendency to experience negative emotions, or not to express emotions at all, were classified "type D" personalities. Doctors then monitored the men for 10 years. Of the 38 men who had died by the end of this period, 23 were type D, which meant that they had a nearly four fold greater chance of dying young than people with other kinds of personality.
In an accompanying article, doctors from the Montreal Heart Institute in Canada suggested that treatment for depression could possibly protect vulnerable heart patients.
Both heart disease and depression are major problems in Ireland. At least one in three and as many as two in three people will suffer clinical depression during their lifetime and at any one time, one in 20 people is clinically depressed, estimates Dr Patrick McKeon of St Patrick's Hospital, Dublin and Aware, an organisation which offers education about depression.
Yet sadly, Irish research has shown that many depressed people are not getting the help they need, which can be devastating not only for their own health, but for their families psychological health as well. One reason is that only half of all depressed people seek help from their GPs, despite the fact that many GPs are now well trained to treat depression by offering antidepressant medication and counselling.
Dr Patricia O'Connell, writing in Aware magazine, says that "good communication is vital to the detection and treatment of depression. It is important that the person presenting in a GP practice provide as comprehensive an account as possible of their past medical history, both physical and psychiatric".
Tell tale physical signs of depression include the worsening of psoriasis, stress rashes on the hands and feet, irritable bowel syndrome and chronic tiredness. Emotional stresses which can trigger depression include pregnancy and childbirth, menopause, bereavement, separation, retirement and personal illness.