Depression hikes death rate after heart attack

NEW YORK - In people who have suffered a heart attack, depression and a high heart rate at night, while often coexistent, are independent predictors of death, according to research published in the journal Psychosomatic Medicine.
Dr. Robert M. Carney of Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Mo., and colleagues conducted a series of tests in 333 depressed patients and 383 non-depressed patients who'd recently suffered a heart attack and were followed for up to 30 months.
After accounting for a number of potential factors that might influence the results, depressed patients had higher nighttime heart rate (70.7 versus 67.7 beats per minute) and daytime heart rate (76.4 versus 74.2 beats per minute) than non-depressed patients.