Depression, Physical Impairment, and Treatment of Depression in Chronic Heart Failure

Abstract

Attitudes about impairment and perceived social support were the strongest cross-sectional correlates of depression. The strong association between physical impairment and depression was no longer significant after controlling for attitudes about impairment. In addition, attitudes about impairment predicted chronicity of depressive symptoms longitudinally after controlling for baseline depressive symptom severity. The relation between physical impairment and depression in heart failure is strongly related to how patients cope with impairment. These results call for the development of additional interventions to treat depression that focus on the emotional adjustment to physical impairment.