A new study has found that depressed heart failure patients could be at high risk of death. According to doctors and health experts, it is important for heart failure patients to manage the depression.

John Cleland, professor of cardiology at the Imperial College London, and study investigator, said the study has shown a strong link between depression and chances of death in the year after discharge from hospital.

Depression has been considered as a common disorder. Hopelessness, loss of energy, appetite loss, anger, rapid weight loss and irritability are some of the factors that come with depression. As per health experts, healthy diet, social support, exercise and stress reduction therapies could help a person facing depression.

During the study, researchers observed patients who were hospitalized due to heart failure. Among all the patients, 27 were suffering from mild depression while 24 were with moderate condition. Rest of the patients was not facing any such mood disorder. Researchers carefully looked at the patients for more than 300 days. They observed that about 20 patients who were with severe depression died in a year.

At the end of the study, the researchers concluded that severe depression increases the risk of death up to 80%. According to the study, patients with moderate to severe depression had a five-fold increased risk of death compared to patients with no or mild depression.

While explaining the study, Cleland said, “More than 25 percent of heart failure patients re-admitted to hospitals due to various reasons. Surprisingly, half of the re-admitted patients die within six months. Depression is one of the major factors behind it.”

The study was presented at Heart Failure 2015, annual meeting of the Heart Failure Association (HFA) of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) in Spain.