The presence of both depressive symptoms and distress at baseline was associated with an increased risk for acute CHD (aHR 1.58; 95% CI, 1-2.50) and CV death (aHR 2.27; 95% CI, 1.40-3.67) but not stroke (aHR 1.54; 95% CI, 0.84-2.82) in people with diabetes. However, this relationship was not observed in those without diabetes.
“Folks who reported diabetes plus stress and depressive symptoms had more than a twofold increase in CV death relative to those with diabetes with no behavioral comorbidity, even after adjusting for a wide range of demographic and CV risk factors,” Dr. Cummings told the conference.
“Comorbidity in patients with diabetes remains a challenging problem that is associated with increased risks,” he added.
The EMPOWER study was funded by the Bristol Myers Squibb Foundation. The REGARDS study was funded by the National Institutes of Health.
Dr. Cummings declared an advisory relationship with Sanofi-Aventis not bearing on either set of findings.