Depressive symptoms in the congenital long QT syndrome.
BACKGROUND
A proportion of patients with congenital long QT syndrome (LQTS) experience potentially life-threatening cardiac arrhythmias.


OBJECTIVE
To examine whether depressive symptoms are related to arrhythmic events among symptomatic and asymptomatic LQTS patients, and syncope events among their relatives not carrying the family's LQTS-causing mutation.


METHODS
The participants were 569 molecularly defined LQTS mutation carriers and 622 non-carrier relatives from the Finnish LQTS registry. Depressive symptoms were self-rated with a revised version of the Beck Depression Inventory.


RESULTS
LQTS patients with arrhythmic events scored higher on depressive symptoms than those without (P=0.011) or the control group (P=0.005). In addition, in the binary logistic regression analysis including symptomatic and asymptomatic LQTS mutation carriers, depressive symptoms showed an age- and sex-adjusted association of odds ratio (OR) 1.40 (95% confidence interval (CI) 1.12-1.74) with symptomatic status of LQTS. In similar analysis including non-carriers of the LQTS mutation, there was no association between depressive symptoms and history of syncope events OR 1.23 (95% CI 0.99-1.53).


CONCLUSIONS
Our results from this relatively large genotyped LQTS patient cohort indicate that depressive symptoms are associated with arrhythmic events in LQTS patients. Whether depressive symptoms are causally related to arrhythmias in LQTS remains uncertain.
Hintsa
Taina
T
Department of Psychology, University of Helsinki, FIN-00014, Helsinki, Finland. taina.hintsa@helsinki.fi
Keltikangas-Järvinen
Liisa
L
Puttonen
Sampsa
S
Ravaja
Niklas
N
Toivonen
Lauri
L
Kontula
Kimmo
K
Swan
Heikki
H
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001145:Arrhythmias, Cardiac / Q000209:etiology*; D058070:Asymptomatic Diseases; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003863:Depression / Q000150:complications* / Q000235:genetics; D005260:Female; D006352:Heart Ventricles / Q000503:physiopathology*; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D008133:Long QT Syndrome / Q000150:complications* / Q000235:genetics / Q000523:psychology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009154:Mutation; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D016276:Ventricular Function / Q000502:physiology; D055815:Young Adult