Wellness & Fitness

Mood disorders among causes of heart diseases

attack

There is a higher possibility of suffering from heart conditions if one is characterised by sudden mood swings. FILE PHOTO | NMG

Qn. “Do people with mood disorders stand a higher risk of heart attack than those with mental illness?”

You have asked an incredibly important question, and although you seem to have a slight misconception about mood disorders being or not being mental illnesses, I will rephrase your question and hope that it will make more sense to you and readers. If you are asking whether mood disorders are part and parcel of mental illness, the answer is yes. There are, however, different types of mental illnesses and mood disorders are just one type.

The second question you seem to have in mind, is this ‘What is the relationship between mental illness and heart disease? More specifically, what is the relationship between mood disorder and heart disease?

To understand these two, one has to go back to the basics of medical practice. I will illustrate what this means. To enable doctors communicate among themselves, they have over the years developed a system (some say language) in which when a doctor calls a condition schizophrenia in Japan, the doctor in Kisumu knows exactly what he is talking about.

Similarly, when a doctor in Iceland talks about PTSD the doctor in the Congo gets a clear picture of the possible (general ) causes, clinical picture and most crucially possible treatment options and outcomes.

This level of communication within the profession has in the case of mental health been led by two parallel (sometimes competing) giants. The first is by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the other by the American Psychiatric Association. The latter has developed a system called DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual), while the former has the ICD (International classification of diseases).

Happily for all of us the two systems are broadly similar. In 1978 when the first American system was proposed, there were only two dozen mental illnesses that were termed different and distinct. Today, the latest version, DSM-5 has a list of over 300 different types of mental disorders. So, when you ask about the risks of heart diseases and mental disorders, you are in reality asking about all 300 conditions. The answer to your question is that ....It depends on which mental illness you have in mind.

Another way of broadening your question is to seek to know what the relationship between mental illness and physical illness might be. Happily for all, the answer to this question is very easy. Much research has been done in this field and there is no doubt that the two have a connection.

Taking your question as the starting point, we know that people with some mental illnesses have greater likelihood of developing physical disorders than those who do not. We know for example that people with Schizophrenia tend to die about 15 to 20 years earlier than those without. Put another way, Schizophrenia shortens life expectancy by up to 20 years. Importantly this increased death rate is due to physical conditions such as strokes, heart disease and cancer, among others.

With specific reference to your question on mood disorder and heart disease, the evidence is equally clear. Mood disorders lead to a higher risk of heart disease and those who suffer a cardiac arrest (for example a heart attack) are at greater risk of developing depression.

Indeed there are those who place depression as a higher risk of heart attack than of that smoking. This situation of one leading to the other is truly one in which the river can and does flow in both directions. You can move from a heart attack to depression or vice versa In summary therefore, and in answer to your question, mental and physical conditions seem to feed off each other, one making the other worse.