A drug can combat depression common among patients with severe heart disease, but psychological counseling doesn’t seem to work, a study said on Tuesday.
The report from the University of Montreal Hospital Center said there have been few studies looking at how much antidepressants help depressed heart disease victims, even though as many as 27 percent may suffer from it. Doctors believe that treating the depression may also slow the deterioration of their patients’ health.
The Canadian study, published in this week’s Journal of the American Medical Association, involved 284 patients variously given the drug citalopram — sold as Celexa by Forest Laboratories Inc. — a placebo or short-term psychotherapy.
The patients had previously suffered a heart attack or major blockage of arteries.
Citalopram is one of a class of antidepressants taken by millions, commonly called SSRIs, that include Eli Lilly’s Prozac.
The study found that the drug worked to combat depression by easing its most common symptoms, with the effect apparent within six weeks.
But, it concluded, counseling did not have an impact.
“It remains to be demonstrated that any form of psychotherapy is superior to clinical management in reducing depression symptoms in this group,” it said.
In an editorial in the same issue commenting on the study, physicians Alexander Glassman and J. Thomas Bigger of the New York State Psychiatric Institute said the study provides further evidence that SSRIs combat depression in heart disease victims.
And while there is suggestive evidence that such drugs help reduce the risk of a subsequent heart attack and other problems it will take a large study to find that out, a project which they said is “urgently needed.”
