Heart disease is common - in all countries and in all societies – and most of us, even if we have not had a heart attack ourselves, know someone who has had a heart attack. Sadly, not everyone who suffers a heart attack lives to tell the tale. Heart attacks kill people – and for many people the first heart attack they have is a fatal one.
Survival After Heart attack
Having said that, however, there are many folk these days who survive a heart attack – where following recovery the heart (although a part of it is damaged) can heal itself and continue to perform its normal action of pumping blood through the circulation to keep the body alive. Many research studies have been done to find out what are the factors that influence a person’s survival after they have suffered a heart attack. In other words, what can be done to prevent that person suffering a second (and very likely fatal) heart attack?
Depression after Heart Attack
One significant factor that has been proven to affect survival in people with coronary heart disease is depression. Patients who remain depressed – that is, not just temporarily low in mood but medically depressed - after suffering a heart attack were shown to be more likely to suffer another fatal heart attack. Now it is quite normal for a person who unexpectedly suffers a heart attack to feel depressed – being worried, upset, angry, even blaming themselves and others for what has happened. Generally, this adjustment reaction resolves over a period of time, in most cases within two to three months. If a person is still having low mood and features of being depressed more than two months after the event, it is prudent to screen them for clinical depression – and if the diagnosis of depression is confirmed, it is time to call on the services of a psychologist for appropriate therapy. This form of psychotherapy, together with (or in many cases today, without) needing to take antidepressant medicines, can help the patient deal with the post heart attack depression – and minimize the chances of a second heart attack.
Smoking and Heart Disease
Another important factor that affects survival after a heart attack is smoking. An interesting research study published by the Journal of the American College of Cardiology called the Coronary Artery Surgery Study (CASS) undertaken at the University of Alabama in the US, studied a group of 780 patients with established coronary artery disease. Half of these were treated with coronary bypass surgery and the other half were treated with medicines (without heart surgery). Both groups had smokers as well as non-smokers. At the end of the ten year research project, it was shown that the non smokers, in comparison, to those who continued smoking were more likely to be free of chest pain (angina), less likely to be limited in their day to day activities and less likely to have had hospital admissions for unstable angina, heart attacks and strokes. The findings were similar in both groups of patients (those who had their heart disease treated by surgery and those who were treated only with medicines) – but the difference in death rates between smokers and non-smokers was even more significant in the group that underwent bypass surgery.
CASS (Coronary Artery Surgery Study) Project
The authors of the CASS study (Cavender, Rogers, Fisher, Gersh. Coggin and Myers) concluded: “…among patients with documented coronary artery disease, continued cigarette smoking is associated with decreased survival”.
While it is important, if one has suffered a heart attack, to have one’s stent or bypass done if the doctor so advises and to take one’s medications religiously, all this compliance can be negated if Post Heart Attack Depression goes undiagnosed and untreated – and if one fails to quit smoking after the heart attack.
Reference:
Sanjiva Wijesinha - Dr. Sanjiva Wijesinha, Associate Professor at Monash University medical school, writes on health, travel and medical topics.
