
Hospitalization for a heart-related emergency can have profound effects on a person’s mental health, a new study finds. People hospitalized for heart attack, stroke or other heart-related illnesses were 83% more likely to be diagnosed with a psychiatric disorder within the following year, according to results published July 31 in the Journal of the American Heart Association. Not only that, but this effect lingered: Up to nearly eight years later, those hospitalized were 24% more likely to be diagnosed with a psychiatric issue, researchers found. “If you or a loved one has been hospitalized for heart disease, be aware that mental health issues may arise during recovery,” said senior researcher Dr. Huan Song, a professor of epidemiology with the West China Biomedical Big Data Center at Sichuan University in Chengdu, China. “It’s important to monitor for signs of anxiety, depression or suicidal thoughts. These mental health challenges are common and treatable,” Song added in a journal news release. For the study, researchers analyzed the mental health history of nearly 64,000 British adults who’d been hospitalized with heart problems or stroke between 1997 and 2020. They were compared against another 128,000 people matched for age, gender and the presence of other serious but non-heart-related illness. Within the first year of hospitalization, the rate of mental health diagnoses among heart patients was nearly twice that of people… read on > read on >