Researchers have recommended early heart and blood vessel monitoring among teens suffering from depression or bipolar disorder suggesting that these could predispose youth to accelerated atherosclerosis and even early cardiovascular disease.
Published in the journal of the American Heart Association, the study makes recommendations to consider depression, mood disorder as moderate yet independent risk factors for heart diseases. Researchers have based their recommendations on a group of recent scientific studies including a 2011 study population study of more than 7,000 US adults under the age of 30. Researchers found that a history of depression or an attempted suicide was the number one risk factor for heart disease death caused by narrowed/clogged arteries in young women, and the number 4 risk factor in young men.
Though mood disorders have never been seen as one of the factors that could lead to excessive and early heart disease, researchers are hoping that their study and the resulting guidelines will give birth to a new wave of action plan for patients from themselves as well as their families and healthcare providers that will help them the risk of cardiovascular diseases.
Major depression and bipolar disorder are one of the most common mood disorders that affect about 10 per cent of adolescents in the US alone. Major depression is one of the main causes of disability among teens globally, while bipolar disorder is the fourth-leading cause.
Symptoms of major depression include persistent feelings of sadness and loss of interest in previously enjoyed activities. Bipolar disorder can cause severe mood swings between periods of major depression and mania, which may include increased elation, energy, irritability and a decreased need for sleep.
Previous studies have already shown that adults with major depression and bipolar disorder are at a greater risk of suffering from cardiovascular disease, and that too much earlier than other adults. This is the reason, authors of the latest study call for increased awareness and recognition of mood disorders among young people as moderate-risk conditions for early cardiovascular disease.
After systematically analyzing published research, the authors found that teens with major depression or bipolar disorder are more likely than other teens to have several cardiovascular disease risk factors including:
- high blood pressure;
- high cholesterol;
- obesity, especially around the midsection;
- type 2 diabetes; and
- hardening of the arteries.
The biological causes of these increased risks remain unclear, but they may be related to inflammation and other types of cell damage, which some studies found occur more frequently among teens with mood disorders compared to other teens.
While teens with mood disorders were more likely than other teens to have unhealthy behaviors, like drug abuse, smoking and being physically inactive, those factors alone do not explain the increased cardiovascular risk.
Similarly, medications do not fully explain the increased risk. While certain mood medications can cause weight gain, and high blood pressure, cholesterol and blood-sugar levels, most of the teens in the studies analyzed were not medicated.
Based on these findings, the authors advise including major depression and bipolar disorder as a moderate risk factor for cardiovascular disease in teens.
“Mood disorders are often lifelong conditions, and managing cardiovascular risk early and assertively is tremendously important if we are to be successful in ensuring that the next generation of youth has better cardiovascular outcomes,” said Benjamin I. Goldstein, M.D., Ph.D., lead author of the statement and a child-adolescent psychiatrist at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre and the University of Toronto, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. “These disorders indicate an increased risk of heart disease that requires increased vigilance and action at the earliest possible stage.”
