According to a new study, patients treated with antidepressants had lower mortality rates, artery disease and stroke than those who did not receive any medication for depression.

For the study, researchers included more than 5000 people who had severe depression out of more than 26,000 patients who received treatment at the involved medical facility. According to the researchers, it was found that 20% had moderate or severe depression and the left one 21,517 patients didn't show depression based on a 9-question depression screen.

“Antidepressants were not associated with a reduced cardiovascular risk in people with little or no depression, but in moderately to severely depressed people, antidepressants were shown to significantly improve cardiovascular outcomes”, said lead study author, Heidi May PhD, a public health scientist.

According to the researchers, it was found that the antidepressant made difference in the more depressed people. Dr. May also said that the study shows the significance of evaluating patients for depression so that their risk for heart disease can be decreased. The results of the study also show that protection was there in treating the disease with anti-depressants than treating it with an addition of statins.

The researchers said that they have not studied that how antidepressants might potentially prevent heart disease. It has been informed that reducing symptoms might impact more at-risk individual's behaviors than taking medications like healthy diet and exercise.

On March 15, the study will be presented at the annual meeting of the American College of Cardiology (ACC) that is going to be held from March 14 to 16 in San Diego. As per experts, numerous forms of depressive disorders are there like major depression, psychotic depression, postpartum depression, persistent depressive disorder and bipolar disorder.