Heart disease can be depressing, literally. About 50 percent of hospitalized heart patients have some depressive symptoms, and up to 20 percent develop major depression, and depression affects heart health.

Patients who are depressed at the time of hospitalization for heart conditions are two to five times more likely than average to die or to suffer further cardiovascular events such as heart attack, stroke, or severe chest pain in the following year.

If a person is seriously depression or anxious, the emergency response becomes constant, damaging the blood vessels and making the heart less sensitive to signals telling it to slow down or speed up as the body’s demands change.