A study of symptom profile of depression following myocardial infarction.

Depression is common clinical manifestation following myocardial infarction (MI), the prevalence being 20.0-30.0% in different studies. Both biological factors and problems related to life threatening condition have been blamed as risk factors of depression following MI. Although the profile of symptomatology of depression after life threatening physical illnesses is similar in many aspects to that of depressive disorder in other individuals, there are substantial differences between them. Fifty-one patients with MI were studied using Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS) during first visit, and after one month, three months and six months period. The result showed that most of the symptoms were somatic type (45.0-57.0%), psychological category being the next (36.0-44.0%), whereas 7.0 to 12.0% of the symptoms constituted motor.