According to a new study, people with heart disease could be at risk and the risk could be increased when the patients are stressed and depressed. The study was conducted by Columbia University Medical Center in New York City.

According to the study, if a patient of cardiovascular disease is both highly stressed and depressed, then the chances of death within next 2 years increase by 50%. Carmela Alcantara, associate research scientist at Columbia University Medical Center for Behavioral Cardiovascular Health and lead author of the study, said that there are only few studies that mentioned that stress and depression can have effect on heart disease patients.

The study had included more than 4,000 individuals. The participants were part of a previous study which suggested that depression and stress can independently increase the risk of heart disease. The participants were asked to self-report symptoms of depression and stress. The patients were observed for an average of about six years. At the end of the study, the researchers found that 6.1% of the participants had high stress and symptoms of depression, while just 5.6% of the people had high stress and 7.7% had intense symptoms of depression.

The complied results of the study showed that the previous study had misattributed the cause of heart-disease death to depression and stress independently. The new study showed that both stress and depression increase risk of death from heart disease.

Carmela Alcantara said, "The increase in risk accompanying high stress and high depressive symptoms was robust and consistent across demographics, medical history, medication use and health-risk behaviors."

According to the researchers, the study has shown that doctors should consider some additional methods to treat patients of heart disease who are stressed or depressed. The new study has been published in the journal circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes.