How Healthcare Professionals in Cardiac Care Address Depressive Symptoms: Experiences of Patients With Cardiovascular Disease.
Mats Westas, Johan Lundgren, Ghassan Mourad and 2 others
PMID 32084077WHAT IT FOUND
Patients with cardiovascular disease and depressive symptoms often felt cardiac care staff addressed only the heart, not mood; many minimized symptoms and needed relatives, rehab, or their own initiative to get help.
Key findings
01Patients often felt healthcare professionals did not see or address their psychological needs and focused only on somatic heart disease.
02Many patients minimized or hid depressive symptoms during encounters and blamed themselves for not receiving help.
03When patients received help, most had taken the initiative themselves, and the majority had received guidance or information during cardiac rehabilitation.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
Twenty interviews with patients in southeastern Sweden cannot show how common these experiences are or transfer to all patients with cardiovascular disease. Participants were recruited from a trial of Internet-based cognitive behavior treatment for depressive symptoms and had completed at least one treatment module, so they may have been biased by that experience and possibly not satisfied with previous help. The sample had narrow cardiac diagnoses, with only 1 participant having heart failure, 11 having atrial fibrillation, and 8 having coronary artery disease, myocardial infarction, or angina. The study captured only patients' viewpoints, not the perspectives of healthcare professionals.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read this as evidence that asking patients about depression improves outcomes. It is a small qualitative interview study of patient experiences, not a trial testing an intervention.