Depression Harms Healthy Habits, Hearts

Heart disease patients tend to have more heart attacks and other problems if they’re also depressed. A new study suggests a simple reason — they don’t take care of themselves. They especially tend to skip exercise. The study included 1,017 people with stable heart disease. About 1 in 5 people were depressed. The depressed people were more likely to have a heart attack, stroke or related event than people without depression. But the gap disappeared after accounting for health habits. Depressed people were less likely to exercise and take their medicines. They were more likely to smoke. The study was in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Reuters Health news service wrote about it November 25.