New-onset anxiety and depression are frequently seen after a first-time implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) implant, Danish researchers confirm.
Within the first 2 years, clinical levels of anxiety and depression were recorded in 14.5% and 11.3%, respectively, of patients who had been free of such symptoms prior to receiving the device, Susanne Pedersen, PhD (Odense University Hospital, University of Southern Denmark, Odense), reported recently during the virtual European Heart Rhythm Association Congress 2021.
“The take-home message here is that it is insufficient if we only screen ICD patients [for these symptoms] at baseline,” because these cases would be missed, she said. “And we know that anxiety and depression are risk factors for premature mortality, but also cardiac arrhythmias.”
April 26, 2021
A population-based screening program for atrial fibrillation (AF) improved clinical outcomes in 75- and 76-year-olds living in two regions of Sweden, the randomized STROKESTOP shows.
Over more than 5 years of follow-up, risk of the combined primary endpoint of ischemic stroke, systemic thromboembolism, all-cause mortality, hemorrhagic stroke, or hospitalization for bleeding was significantly lower in the group invited for screening (HR 0.96;
P = 0.045), according to Emma Svennberg, MD, PhD (Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden).
The number of people who would have to be invited for screening in order to prevent one event is 91, she reported last week during the virtual European Heart Rhythm Association Congress 2021.
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