{"id":51311,"date":"2017-10-11T08:05:10","date_gmt":"2017-10-11T12:05:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/busm\/?p=51311"},"modified":"2017-10-11T09:30:02","modified_gmt":"2017-10-11T13:30:02","slug":"detecting-mental-health-conditions-in-women-veterans-helps-identify-risk-for-cardiovascular-disease","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/2017\/10\/11\/detecting-mental-health-conditions-in-women-veterans-helps-identify-risk-for-cardiovascular-disease\/","title":{"rendered":"Detecting Mental Health Conditions in Women Veterans Helps Identify Risk for Cardiovascular Disease"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"COM-female<\/p>\n

Women Veterans that exhibit a high degree of mental health issues are associated with an increased risk for coronary artery disease (CAD).<\/p>\n

The study, which appears in the Journal of Women\u2019s Health<\/em>, also found that with each additional mental health condition (depression, anxiety and psychotic disorders), the odds of CAD increase by at least 40 percent.<\/p>\n

A research team from BUSM and the VA Boston Healthcare System (VABHS), studied the data of 157,000 women Veterans over the age of 45 to examine the statistical relationship between CAD and the presence of one or more mental health conditions.<\/p>\n

They found women Veterans with depression had a 60 percent greater chance of having CAD than those without depression regardless of whether they smoked or not. They also found that with each additional mental health diagnosis a 44 percent greater risk of having heart disease resulted.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis study suggests that, for women Veterans, mental health diagnoses act as potentially modifiable risk factors for coronary artery disease,\u201d explained corresponding author Megan Gerber, MD, MPH, associate professor of medicine at BUSM and Medical Director of Women\u2019s Health at VABHS. \u201cOur findings indicate that interventions for reduction of heart disease risk in women Veterans should focus on detection and treatment of mental health disorders, particularly depression.\u201d<\/p>\n

The researchers believe this is the first study that examines the relationship between heart disease and the presence of multiple mental health diagnoses in women Veterans who get care at the VA. \u201cBecause many women Veterans seek care outside VA, these findings are relevant for community providers who may treat women Veterans,\u201d added Gerber.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Researchers examined the statistical relationship between coronary artery disease and the presence of mental health conditions in female veterans over the age of 45.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12772,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[91,90],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51311"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12772"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51311"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51311\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51334,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51311\/revisions\/51334"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}