Carotid Stenting Eases Depression

Opening a narrowed carotid artery with a stent reduces symptoms of depression that could be associated with carotid stenosis, according to a new study.

Researchers from the Vienna General Hospital and Medical School (Vienna, Austria) studied 143 patients with carotid stenosis and 102 age- and gender-matched controls with peripheral artery disease (PAD), scheduled to undergo lower-limb angioplasty. All patients were tested for depressive symptoms based on the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI). BDI scores of 10 or above indicate substantial depressive symptoms.

Patients with a high level of carotid stenosis (greater than 80%) more frequently exhibited such substantial depressive symptoms compared to the controls. While 33.6 % of the patients with carotid stenosis presented with depressive symptoms at the beginning of the study, only 16.7% of the control patients did so. Four weeks after carotid stenting, the BDI questionnaire was administered again. This time only 9.8% of the patients with carotid stenosis exhibited depressive symptoms compared with 13% of the patients who had undergone angioplasty. The study was published in the August 2006 issue of Radiology.

"The patients in this study who received carotid stenting showed significantly fewer depressive symptoms than those who did not,” said lead author Wolfgang Mlekusch, M.D., a specialist in clinical angiology and internal medicine. "Our findings suggest that opening the carotid artery and restoring blood flow to the brain via a minimally invasive technique under local anesthesia is associated with significant reduction in depressive symptoms.”

Recent studies have shown that some depressive disorders may be caused by cerebrovascular diseases such as carotid stenosis, which restricts blood flow to the brain. These disorders are collectively known as "vascular depression.”



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Vienna General Hospital and Medical School