NEW ORLEANS—Younger women with acute MI are a particularly high-priority target population in terms of screening for and treatment of postinfarct depression, Susmita Mallik, M.D., said at the annual scientific sessions of the American Heart Association.
She reported on 2,501 patients admitted with acute MI to 19 U.S. medical centers participating in the Prospective Registry Evaluating Outcomes After Myocardial Infarction: Events and Recovery (PREMIER) study. Roughly half the patients were age 60 or younger, and 815 participants were women.
The prevalence of in-hospital depression—defined by a score of at least 10 on the Primary Care Evaluation of Mental Disorders Brief Patient Health Questionnaire—was 40% in women and 22% in men age 60 or younger, and 21% in women and 16% in men above age 60, reported Dr. Mallik of Emory University, Atlanta.
After adjusting for race, comorbid conditions, smoking status, and other potential confounders, the odds of experiencing in-hospital depression following an acute MI were nearly fourfold greater in women under age 60 than in men over age 60.
This observation is in keeping with findings from community-based studies showing that the prevalence of depression is higher in young women than other segments of the general population, she added.