Depression and anxiety are two medical conditions that are extremely difficult to treat by doctors, mostly because they have to do with a person's state of mind, and not necessarily with something going wrong inside their body. However, these diseases can also affect the body, in light of the actions people suffering from their effect take. Most of them dwell on inactivity and pick up damaging habits, such as smoking and drinking. Over time, this routine takes a hold of them, and begins to damage the entire cardiovascular system.

A new scientific study, published in the December 16, 2008, issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, thoroughly links a decrease in the incidence of these two mental conditions to a drop in heart disease cases in the studied group. Nevertheless, British scientists at the University College London, led by senior research fellow, Mark Hamer, PhD, say that the approach to treating this affliction complex must be broadened, to include behavior as well.

"Psychological distress is a growing problem. It's very important that physicians try to identify psychological distress, but it's also important to look at the behaviors and the risk factors that are associated with it," Hamer says.

"Treating psychological factors on their own might not be the best way. We're suggesting that you might have to intervene in the more intermediate pathways, which is the behavior, in addition to trying to treat the psychological problems," he adds.

The study comprised more than 6,576 people – men and women, equally represented – who were part of the Scottish Health Survey. The participants were monitored for up to seven years, and the researchers found through their medical records that 223 of them suffered some form of heart disease over the course of the study, with 63 registered deaths.

"This study helps us to better understand the relative contributions of stress-related changes in behavior and physiology leading to heart disease. From a public health perspective, the findings encourage us to emphasize broad preventive strategies to target the behavioral and physiological pathways leading from stress to cardiovascular disease," reveals professor of medicine and psychiatry Roland von Känel, M.D., who is the head of the psychocardiology unit of the University Hospital of Bern Swiss Cardiovascular Center, in Switzerland.