Almost one third of the patients who had heart attack undergo depression. People who are isolated from the society, or have no emotional support, have a higher tendency to fall into depression after a heart attack. Many people however do not recognize depression and don’t take initiative to cure it. Depression acts as a stumbling block to the physical recovery.

A recent study carried out by Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality found that 60 out of 70 patients with heart attack suffers from depression for at least one to four months after their discharge from the hospital. Major depression can last for 2 weeks with the symptoms of pessimism, hopelessness, sadness and lack of interest in daily activities.

The research also shows that even after a year, the heath attacked patients have problems coping up in their work, quality of life decrease and physical and mental health decline. The study also found that these effects continue to persist for some cases even after five years from discharge from the hospital. The national hospital data from AHRQ confirmed that around 765,000 people were discharged after the treatment of heart attack in the United States alone.