Depression during or after pregnancy could be tied to a heightened risk of heart trouble in women decades later, new research warns.
This so-called “perinatal” depression was linked to a 36% higher odds of developing heart disease within the next 20 years, reported a Swedish team led by Dr. Emma Bränn, of the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm.
She said the findings could open up new pathways to protecting women’s hearts.
“We know that perinatal depression is both preventable and treatable, and for many people, it’s the first episode of depression they’ve ever experienced,” Bränn said. “Our findings provide more reason for ensuring maternal care is holistic, with equal attention on both physical and mental health.”
The findings were published Tuesday in the European Heart Journal.
Study Findings
In the study, the Stockholm team looked at the medical histories of over 55,500 Swedish women diagnosed with perinatal depression between 2001 and 2014 and compared them to another group of almost 546,000 Swedish women who had also given birth during that time but were not diagnosed with perinatal depression. They tracked the women’s heart health up until 2020.
Any history of depression around the time of pregnancy was linked to higher odds for later heart disease. While 6.4% of women with such histories developed heart issues by 2020, that was true for just 3.7% of women who had not had perinatal depression, the study found. This amounts to a 36% rise in relative risk.
Similar trends were seen with high blood pressure (a 50% higher odds among women with perinatal depression) and heart failure (36% higher odds).
Potential Causes
The exact links between perinatal depression and heart disease remain unclear. One subset of the study, looking at heart disease risks between women with perinatal depression and their unaffected sisters, found a 20% higher odds for heart disease in the sisters with a history of perinatal depression.
“The slightly lower difference in risk between sisters suggests that there could be genetic or familial factors partly involved,” Bränn noted in a news release from the European Society of Cardiology.
“There could also be other factors involved, as is the case for the link between other forms of depression and cardiovascular disease,” she added. “These include alterations in the immune system, oxidative stress, and lifestyle changes implicated in major depression.”
Implications for Treatment
Writing in an accompanying editorial, Dr. Amani Meaidi, from the Danish Cancer Society, noted that treating postpartum depression might now provide an added bonus for women’s hearts.
“It was not until last year, in 2023, that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the first oral treatment for postpartum depression, making treatment much more accessible for the millions of women suffering from this condition,” she wrote.
Meaidi said that “the future will reveal if proper perinatal depression therapy” ends up curbing heart disease rates in women as they age.
Conclusion
These findings underscore the importance of comprehensive maternal care that includes mental health. With the new evidence linking perinatal depression to increased long-term heart disease risk, healthcare providers have more reasons to ensure that mental health is a crucial part of prenatal and postnatal care.
