THE INFLUENCE OF DEPRESSION IN HYPERTENSIVE ELDERLY PATIENTS

Abstract

Objective: Depression and cardiovascular diseases are two common pathological entities in the elderly, their incidence increasing with advancing age. Clinicians have empirically observed that depression is an independent risk factor for hypertension, thus showing the need to demonstrate this hypothesis through clinical trials and also the correlation of depression with the occurrence of other cardiovascular diseases. Design and method: The study was carried out on 127 patients in the Emergency County Hospital dr. Pompei Samarian Calarasi, with cardiovascular disease, including hypertension, and/or depression. The presented study is observational, analytical, retrospective. The study group was randomized according to inclusion and exclusion criteria established prior to patient selection. Results: Hypertension is very common in the elderly. We observe a significant increase in blood pressure values with age. Patients at low, moderate, and high cardiovascular risk tend to have mild or moderate depression, and those at very high risk tend to have moderate or severe depression. Depression influences cardiovascular risk factors, favoring the increase of serum cholesterol and triglyceride values and favoring the decrease of serum HDL-cholesterol values, the influence of depression being statistically significant. The proportion of patients with hypertension who associate depression increases with increasing blood pressure values. To emphasize the importance of depression in hypertension, we excluded patients with metabolic syndrome. It has been observed that in these patients the association between depression and hypertension increases, emphasizing the fact that depression represents a cardiovascular risk factor. Studying the relationship between the severity of depression and the degree of arterial hypertension, it was observed that in patients with high blood pressure, the degree of depression is high. Conclusions: Considering all these aspects, we emphasize the importance of the correct and early diagnosis of depression in elderly patients, this being an important risk factor for cardiovascular diseases, including hypertension, often ignored in medical practice.