Psychological treatments for depression in young adults and adults born with heart problems

Lane DA, Millane TA, Lip GYH

Published Online:

January 21, 2009

Sometimes young adults and adults who are born with heart problems grow up and have depression. Treatments to help them other than anti-depressant drugs include psychotherapy, cognitive behavioural therapies and talking therapies. Benefits to having treatment may include improved quality of life and disadvantages to having treatment may include more severe depression and lower quality of life. The reviewers found no evidence from randomised controlled trials about the effects of psychotherapy, cognitive behavioural therapies and talking therapies for treating depression in adults or young adults born with heart disease.

Abstract (click to read)

Background:

Adult and adolescent congenital heart disease is increasing in prevalence as better medical care means more children are surviving to adulthood. People with chronic disease often also experience depression. There are several non-pharmacological treatments that might be effective in treating depression and improving quality of life for adults and young adults with congenital heart disease. The aim of this review was to assess the effects of treatments such as psychotherapy, cognitive behavioural therapies and talking therapies for treating depression in this population.

Objectives:

To assess the effects (both harms and benefits) of psychological interventions for treating depression in young adults and adults with congenital heart disease.

Search strategy:

We searched the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL) on The Cochrane Library (Issue 3 2008), MEDLINE (1966 to September 2008), EMBASE (1980 to September 2008), PsycINFO (1887 to September 2008), the Database of Abstracts of Reviews of Effectiveness (DARE) on The Cochrane Library (Issue 3, 2008), Biological Abstracts in BIOSIS (January 1980 to September 2008), and CINAHL (January 1980 to September 2008). Abstracts from national and international cardiology and psychology conferences and dissertation abstracts were also searched. No language restrictions were applied.

Selection criteria:

Randomised controlled trials comparing psychological interventions with no intervention for people over 15 years with depression who have congenital heart disease.

Data collection and analysis:

Two reviewers independently screened titles and abstracts of studies that were potentially relevant to the review . Studies that were clearly ineligible were rejected. Two reviewers independently assessed the abstracts or full papers for inclusion criteria. Further information was sought from the authors where papers contained insufficient information to make a decision about eligibility.

Main results:

No randomised controlled trials were identified.

Authors' conclusions:

Depression is common in patients with congenital heart disease and can exacerbate the physical consequences of the illness. There are effective pharmacological and non-pharmacological treatments for depression, but we have not been able to identify any trials showing the effectiveness of non-pharmacological treatments. A well designed randomised controlled trial is needed to assess the effects of psychological interventions for depression in congenital heart disease.

This record should be cited as:

Lane DA, Millane TA, Lip GYH. Psychological interventions for depression in adolescent and adult congenital heart disease. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2005, Issue 2. Art. No.: CD004372. DOI: 10.1002/14651858.CD004372

Assessed as up to date:

October 15, 2008

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Primary Review Group:

Heart Group

Health topics:

Heart & circulation > Congenital heart disease

Cochrane Summaries^beta

Independent high-quality evidence for health care decision making

Psychological treatments for depression in young adults and adults born with heart problems

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