Mental health issues common after cardiac arrest

A quarter of cardiac arrest survivors suffer long-term psychological problems such as anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder and depression, a new review of research estimates.This additional stress on recovering patients is under-diagnosed, researchers say, and doctors have few standard methods for identifying who is at risk.

"Anxiety, depression and PTSD are major concerns after cardiac arrest," said lead author Kathryn Wilder Schaaf, a postdoctoral fellow at Virginia Commonwealth University. "We have the tools to treat this, so it's important to make sure that it's identified," she added.

Wilder Schaaf and colleagues found that months to years after surviving cardiac arrest, about one-third of patients were depressed and nearly two-thirds were experiencing anxiety. Even PTSD symptoms were surprisingly common, afflicting 19 percent to 27 percent of survivors, the medical literature showed.

Read the full article via Reuters Health here.

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If 'drugs don’t work' for depression, CBT may.

“Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) can reduce symptoms of depression in people who fail to respond to drug treatment" BBC News has reported. CBT is already an established ‘talking therapy’ for depression and takes a more pragmatic and problem solving approach than more traditional forms of psychotherapy.

The study found that people who received CBT in addition to antidepressants, rather than continuing to receive antidepressants alone, had around a three-fold increased chance of responding to treatment and having a reduction in their depression symptoms over the following 12 months.The study provides further evidence on the effectiveness of CBT to treat depression, particularly in those who have not responded to antidepressants alone.

Paul Farmer, chief executive at the mental health charity Mind "We welcome this research because it recognises that patients should have the right to a wide range of treatment options based on individual needs".

To read the full article via NHS Mental Health, click here.

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