LIPID-LOWERING THERAPY AND VIOLENT DEATH - IS DEPRESSION A CULPRIT

Large-scale, controlled treatment studies of antilipidemic therapy have yielded consistent evidence of reduction in cardiovascular morbidity and mortality, but no reduction in total mortality. This counterhypothetical result appears to be due to a compensatory increase in cancer and violent death with treatment. 'Violent death' includes suicides, homocides and accidents. The present study took advantage of a dataset on 174 males undergoing coronary angiography which included presence/absence of an antilipidemic medication regimen and multiple measures of emotional distress/dysfunction to see if the two were associated. Self-reported depression on the Ketterer Stress Symptom Frequency Checklist (KSSFC) was higher in these angiographic male patients if they were on medical treatment for hypercholesterolemia than if they were not. Comparisons across antilipidemic groupings of a number of potential confounding/mediating variables revealed no systematic differences which can account for these results. While only correlational in nature, present results are consistent with the hypothesis that antilipidemic drug treatment induces emotional distress in males undergoing coronary angiography.