Depression in patients with heart failure
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Quality of life, fatigue and autonomic dysfunction in patients with heart failure: association with symptoms of low mood and depression.
IRAS ID
312832
Contact name
Alan Bagnall
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals (NuTH) NHS Foundation Trust
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
NU-11854, Award number - Newcastle Joint Research Office
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 0 months, 1 days
Research summary
Many people in the North East and North Cumbria have heart failure, some of whom will also suffer with depression. Having both conditions is particularly challenging. It means you are more likely to have a worse quality of life, feel more fatigued and more likely to need hospital treatment for your heart failure. It also increases the chances of poor outcomes, such as heart transplant or death. It is much harder to diagnose depression in people with heart failure, so you may be less likely to access specialist mental health support. Also, the usual treatments for depression (talking therapies and medication) do not appear to be helpful in patients with heart failure.
The autonomic nervous system controls the unconscious activity in our body. It has an important role in regulating heart rate. Normally there is variation to the heart rate: sometimes the heart beats a little faster and sometimes a little slower. We call this ‘heart rate variability’ and it is a sign of a healthy heart. Heart rate variability is often reduced in heart failure and in depression. Therefore, we wonder if dysregulation of the autonomic nervous system is an important link between heart disease and mood, leading to worse outcomes.We want to learn more about depression in people with heart failure. We will interview people with heart failure and collect information about their mood, fatigue, quality of life and autonomic nervous system function. Many people with heart failure have implanted heart monitors. They allow us to measure their heart rates, and we will use these data to study heart rate variability – this will be an indicator of autonomic nervous system function. A single blood test will be taken to understand how well the heart is functioning, so that we can correlate heart disease severity with our findings.
REC name
North East - Newcastle & North Tyneside 1 Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
22/NE/0209
Date of REC Opinion
20 Nov 2022
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion