Anti-Depressants Don’t Reduce Post Heart-Attack Mortality
I really don’t know what to do with a study from this month’s Archives of General Psychiatry which asserts that deaths in study patients who had acute coronary syndrome (an umbrella term of heart problems resulting in ischemia or dead heart muscle) and who later died had their deaths related to persistent depression following the onset of ACS. Part of me says, “Well, duh, having a heart attack is likely damn depressing and recovery is likely pretty tricky if that depression lasts.” But part of me thinks that’s being a bit too dismissive.
Another part of me notes that one of the study authors (Michael Gaffney) is an employee of Pfizer and Pfizer makes Zoloft. What’s more, the anti-depressant used in the study was Zoloft. The study was called the Sertraline Antidepressant Heart Attack Randomized Trial (SADHART) and was presumably unwritten by Pfizer. It was placebo-controlled but didn’t include a psychotherapy arm.
So the skeptic in me says not to trust pharma trying to find yet another way to connect its depression treatments to another condition by claiming a protective effect of depression treatment. Not that the study claims a huge benefit from taking Zoloft. An initial six-month course of the drug following onset of ACS was not connected to long-term survival. Neither were previous episodes of depression. So it’s not like this study is actively pimping for SSRIs for all post-heart attack.
Nonetheless, the authors still conclude that depression treatment is the way to go:
“Because persistent depression increases mortality and decreases medication adherence, physicians need to aggressively treat depression and be diligent in promoting adherence to guideline cardiovascular drug therapy.”
What kind of depression treatment would that be since Zoloft wasn’t associated with longer life spans?
As I said, I really don’t know what to make of this study, but something in me tells me not to trust its conclusions, at least not wholesale.
Related posts:
- Anti-Depressants Again Linked To Birth Defects
- Study: Anti-Depressants Ineffective For Mild, Moderate Depression
- Anti-Depressants Double Suicide Risk In Young Adults
- Study: Anti-Depressants Linked To Increased Stroke Risk In Older Women
- Study, BBC Claim Anti-Depressants Work Instantly, 6 Reasons To Be Skeptical
Posted in Furious Seasons