Depression Alone Could Increase the Risk of Stroke in Women?

Women suffering from depression and taking the help of antidepressants are more likely to have stroke, according to a Harvard research based on 80,000 women.

The UK stroke experts disagreed with the fact that depression could alone be responsible for increasing the stroke risk.

Depressed women are more likely to be single, smokers and physically less active.

The Journal of the American Heart Association said doctors should be aware that people with depression may neglect their general health.

A study conducted by researchers at the Harvard School for Public Health and Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston shows that women with a history of depression have a 29 percent greater risk of having a stroke.

"Depression has now been linked to stroke as well as cardiovascular disease in general," says internist Kathryn Rexrode, associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, the study's senior author. But "these are modest elevations in risk," she says, and added that it should not lead women to stop taking antidepressants.

Lead researcher An Pan of the Harvard School of Public Health says use of antidepressants indicate more severe depression.

Though the reasons are not clear, women are twice as likely as men to suffer from depression.

Stroke is the third leading cause of death in the USA, after heart disease and cancer, hitting around 425,000 women a year, 55,000 more than men, the National Stroke Association says.