Study Finds Talk Therapy Beneficial for Heart Health

A recent study has found that managing depression can significantly reduce the risk of developing cardiovascular disease. Prior research had already indicated that individuals suffering from depression have up to a 72% higher likelihood of developing cardiovascular disease and are more susceptible to other chronic disorders such as diabetes. The research conducted by a UK-based team suggests that individuals who responded positively to talk therapy, which includes cognitive behavioral therapy, experienced a reduction in their risk of stroke and heart disease. “That would suggest that the benefits of therapy may go beyond mental health and also benefit physical health,” said Céline El Baou, the research assistant and PhD candidate at University College London, who led the study. The research emphasizes the need for more accessible therapy for everyone.

The study used health records from approximately 637,000 adults who had completed one course of talk therapy between the years of 2012 to 2019. The team followed up with patients three years after to determine the risk of cardiovascular disease, coronary heart disease, stroke, and death from any cause. Although the researchers only measured the effect of talk therapy on reducing depression, they did adjust for other factors that can increase the risk of cardiovascular disease, such as diabetes. People whose depression reliably improved were 12% less likely to develop cardiovascular disease at any point in the future.

The study found that the effect of depression relief on heart health was stronger in people under 60 compared to those over 60. For individuals under 60 years old, incidents of cardiovascular disease decreased by 15% and risk of dying from any cause decreased by 22%. For people over 60 years old, the decrease was only 6% and 15%, respectively. Ahmed Tawakol, MD, a cardiologist at Massachusetts General Hospital, explains that depression may have a larger impact on heart disease in younger age groups because older people typically have multiple risk factors for heart disease. Addressing several risk factors simultaneously is required to reduce the chance of cardiovascular events.

The connection between depression and heart health in younger adults is gaining significant attention from medical professionals. A separate study earlier this year found that younger U.S. adults with depression were at a higher risk of developing cardiovascular disease. The research included individuals aged between 18 and 49 years old, with 20% of them experiencing depression. The study found that the more depressive days a person experiences in a month, the higher their likelihood of developing cardiovascular disease.

Although lifestyle habits, such as exercising, healthy eating, and not smoking, promote heart health, depression can make it harder to maintain these habits. Despite this, lifestyle factors are not the only factors that contribute to depression and cardiovascular disease. However, if lifestyle factors are a concern, they can be addressed during therapy sessions. There are also biological links between depression and heart disease. Depression changes the areas of the brain connected to stress and produces substances that can cause inflammation, which is sometimes the main driver of heart disease. Depression can also lead to diabetes, hypertension, and adiposity, independent of lifestyle factors.

Relieving depression, whether it be through therapy or other means, can quell this inflammation. And while not exercising enough because a person is depressed may not have as big of an effect on the link between mental health and heart disease as experts once thought, exercise is one proven way people can reduce depression—especially when therapy is not accessible. 

In a study presented last year at the American College of Cardiology’s Annual Scientific Session, Dr. Tawakol and a team of researchers set out to determine how exercise, depression and anxiety, and cardiovascular disease were linked.

After analyzing health records from more than 50,000 adults, they found that exercise had an outsized effect in improving cardiovascular health in people who have anxiety and depression compared to those who do not.

While the heart benefits people got from exercise plateaued after a certain amount of weekly exercise in people who did not have depression and anxiety, the benefit kept steadily increasing in people who did.

And according to Dr. Tawakol, it’s not just endorphins. “There is a change in the function of the brain,” he noted.

Exercise changes the wiring of the brain, creating more dendrites, or ‘branches,’ that facilitate complex communication. Since the brains of people who have depression are impacted by the condition, this stimulation may have an outsized effect that settles the sense of stress and depression in the brain. Exercise also curbs inflammation.

There are many ways to treat depression, therapy is just one. But what the new research highlights is the important link between mental and physical health.

Dr. Tawakol concluded, “This reminds us that you’re never too young to benefit substantially from treatment of depression.”