title: Assessing depression in cardiac patients: what measures should be considered?
abstract: It is highly recommended to promptly assess depression in heart disease patients as it represents a crucial risk factor which may result in premature deaths following acute cardiac events and a more severe psychopathology, even in cases of subsequent nonfatal cardiac events. Patients and professionals often underestimate or misjudge depressive symptomatology as cardiac symptoms; hence, quick, reliable, and early mood changes assessments are warranted. Failing to detect depressive signals may have detrimental effects on these patients' wellbeing and full recovery. Choosing gold-standard depression investigations in cardiac patients that fit a hospitalised cardiac setting well is fundamental. This paper will examine eight well established tools following Italian and international guidelines on mood disorders diagnosis in cardiac patients: the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), the Cognitive Behavioural Assessment Hospital Form (CBA-H), the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), the two and nine-item Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-2, PHQ-9), the Depression Interview and Structured Hamilton (DISH), the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HAM-D/HRSD), and the Composite International Diagnostic Interview (CIDI). Though their strengths and weaknesses may appear to be homogeneous, the BDI-II and the PHQ are more efficient towards an early depression assessment within cardiac hospitalised patients.
authors.affiliation: Psychology Department, University of Bergamo, 24129 Bergamo, Italy.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ceccarini
authors.affiliation: Istituto Auxologico Italiano IRCCS, Ospedale San Giuseppe, 28922 Verbania, Italy ; Psychology Department, Catholic University of Milan, 20123 Milan, Italy.
authors.forename: G M
authors.initials: GM
authors.lastname: Manzoni
authors.affiliation: Istituto Auxologico Italiano IRCCS, Ospedale San Giuseppe, 28922 Verbania, Italy ; Psychology Department, Catholic University of Milan, 20123 Milan, Italy.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Castelnuovo