Thaindian News

Washington, Feb 26 (IANS) Heart patients who take cholesterol-lowering statins are less likely to develop depression than those who did not.

Mary Whooley, professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco and her research team evaluated 965 heart patients for depression.

They found that the patients who were on statins were significantly less likely to be clinically depressed than those who were not, the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry reports.

They then followed the 776 patients who were not depressed - 520 who were using statins and 256 who were not - for an additional six years, according to a California statement.

Of those taking statins, 18.5 percent developed depression, compared with 28 percent of those not on the drugs. Put another way, the patients who took statins were 38 percent less likely to develop depression than patients who did not.

As the study went on, said Whooley, the difference between the two groups became more pronounced, with the patients on statins becoming less likely to develop depression and the patients not on statins becoming more likely to become depressed over time.

“This would suggest that statins may have some kind of long-term protective effect against depression, perhaps by helping to prevent atherosclerosis in the brain, which can contribute to depressive symptoms,” Whooley said.

She also noted that statins have positive effects on the endothelium - the inner lining of the blood vessels - keeping blood vessels less rigid and therefore better able to adapt to the body’s changing needs. “The exact mechanism is not known, however, and requires further study,” she said.