Perspectives on the relationship between cardiovascular disease and affective disorder.

The relationship of major depression and cardiovascular disease has been the subject of much study. In this paper, the authors review the literature concerning the clinical importance of this relationship in four areas including the diagnosis and treatment of major depression in the setting of cardiovascular disease, the effect of concurrent major depression on the prognosis of cardiovascular disease, and the higher-than-expected rate of cardiovascular death in depressed patients. In addition, they present preliminary data which may suggest a mechanism to explain, in part, this increased rate of cardiovascular death in depression.