Written by Kara Morris
HealthDay reporter
WEDNESDAY, November 9, 2022 (HealthDay News) — A new study suggests that assessing a person’s psychological stress could be a good way to measure cardiovascular disease risk.
The results of the study showed that a brief questionnaire could help in the evaluation.
“Our study is part of the accumulating evidence that psychological distress is a really important factor in the diagnosis of cardiovascular disease, as are health behaviors and other risk factors, such as physical activity and cholesterol levels, that clinicians monitor,” said co-author Emily Gathwright. She is an assistant professor of psychiatry and human behavior at the Warren Albert School of Medicine at Brown University, in Providence, Rhode Island.
For the study, the team looked at research published within the past five years that included adults without a psychiatric diagnosis who were screened for depression, anxiety, PTSD, stress or general mental health symptoms, and were followed for more than six months. About 58% of women.
In all, Guthright and her colleagues analyzed the results of 28 studies involving more than 658,000 patients. The researchers found that those who reported high levels of psychological distress had a 28% higher risk of developing heart disease.
According to study co-author Carly Goldstein, associate professor of psychiatry and human behavior, a brief mental health questionnaire can give clinicians a better idea of not only a patient’s mental health risks, but also the risks associated with heart disease.
She added that based on the survey results, the doctor can immediately advise the patient on how improving their mental health can help their heart health.
“This analysis shows that patient psychological distress is directly related to cardiovascular risk, providing opportunities for clinicians to help a patient manage their risk over time, for better overall health, at the point of care,” said Goldstein at Brown University. New release.
She noted that prior to the study it was not known whether a short mental health screening would help predict heart disease risk.
Most of the research examining links between mental health and heart disease has focused on people who have been diagnosed, said study co-author Alison Jaffe, a clinical psychologist at Yale University School of Medicine in New Haven, Connecticut, who completed her pre-doctoral training at Brown University. Already. Faculty of medicine.
“Certainly we know that mental health is important in the management of care,” Jaffe said.
She noted that the screening tools used in the studies were brief and known, and could be administered with confidence by any clinical provider.
“We believe that the use of these brief examinations, whether in a hospital or a community health care setting, provides useful feedback in understanding cardiovascular disease risk in a very multidimensional way compared to using more standard assessments such as blood pressure or cholesterol levels,” Jaffe said.
She added that even without meeting the criteria for high psychological distress, patients in any distress may still benefit from additional support to help prevent heart disease.
The researchers noted that while the updated American Heart Association guidelines added “healthy sleep” as an essential aspect of good heart health, they did not include “stress management and mental health.”
The team suggested that the checklist be expanded to include good mental health.
Depression is the most common aspect of mental disorder measured in the studies analyzed, Goldstein said, suggesting that screening should also attempt to measure anxiety.
“I would encourage all providers, cardiovascular providers and specialists as well as primary care providers, to do some sort of brief psychiatric disorder screening to assess cardiovascular risk,” she advised. “And I would argue that each provider’s office can make brief recommendations to patients they warrant, which might be as simple as pointing out free and publicly available mental health resources.”
Goldstein said mental health support recommendations can make a difference to a patient’s overall health.
The results were published on November 7 in Journal of rehabilitation and prevention of heart disease.
more information
The World Health Organization has more on cardiovascular disease.
Source: Brown University, press release, November 7, 2022
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