title: Sensitivity to depression or anxiety and subclinical cardiovascular disease.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Depressive and anxiety disorders are highly overlapping, heterogeneous conditions that both have been associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD). Cognitive vulnerability traits for these disorders could help to specify what exactly drives CVD risk in depressed and anxious subjects. Our aim is to examine sensitivity to depression or anxiety in association with indicators of subclinical CVD.
  
  
  METHODS
  Data from 635 participants (aged 20-66 years) of the Netherlands Study of Depression and Anxiety were analyzed. Depression sensitivity was measured by the revised Leiden Index of Depression Sensitivity. Anxiety sensitivity was measured by the Anxiety Sensitivity Index. Subclinical CVD was measured as (1) carotid intima-media thickness and plaque presence using B-mode ultrasonography and (2) central arterial stiffness (augmentation index) using calibrated radial applanation tonometry.
  
  
  RESULTS
  After adjustment for sociodemographics, blood pressure, and LDL cholesterol, higher scores of anxiety sensitivity were associated with both increased likelihood of carotid plaques (OR per SD increase=1.34, 95%CI=1.06-1.68) and increased arterial stiffness (β=.06, p=.01). No significant associations were found with carotid intima-media thickness nor for depression sensitivity.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The cross-sectional design precludes causal inference. Current mood state could have influenced the self-reported sensitivity data.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The presence of carotid plaques and central arterial stiffness was especially increased in subjects who tend to be highly fearful of anxiety-related symptoms. These observations suggest that vulnerability to anxiety, rather than to depression, represents a correlate of subclinical CVD.
authors.affiliation: EMGO Institute for Health and Care Research, VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. a.seldenrijk@ggzingeest.nl
authors.forename: Adrie
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Seldenrijk
authors.forename: Hein P J
authors.initials: HP
authors.lastname: van Hout
authors.forename: Harm W J
authors.initials: HW
authors.lastname: van Marwijk
authors.forename: Eric
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: de Groot
authors.forename: Johan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Gort
authors.forename: Cees
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Rustemeijer
authors.forename: Michaela
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Diamant
authors.forename: Brenda W J H
authors.initials: BW
authors.lastname: Penninx
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001008:Anxiety Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology*; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis*; D059168:Carotid Intima-Media Thickness; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000453:epidemiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009426:Netherlands / Q000453:epidemiology; D058226:Plaque, Atherosclerotic / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D012307:Risk Factors; D059289:Vascular Stiffness; D055815:Young Adult