REPORT: Heart and mental health affect each other. Specialists should work together for patient care

Caption

A new report from Emory University shows that certain mental health conditions escalate the risk of developing heart disease by 50 to 100 percent.

Credit: American Lung Association stock

Every 34 seconds, someone in the United States dies from heart disease, which is one of the leading causes of death, killing more people than any other cause as many of the risks factors that contribute to it remain on the rise, according the data reported in the 2025 Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics: A Report of U.S. and Global Data From the American Heart Association.

A new study that reviewed a body of literature found the health care system often fails to connect multidisciplinary providers of mental and cardiovascular health, said lead author Viola Vaccarino, professor at Emory University’s School of Medicine and chair of Epidemiology at the Rollins School of Public Health.

An overlap exists where nearly half of the country suffers from some form of cardiovascular disease (CVD), and another 1 in 4 adults experience a mental health disorder, she said, noting that people with mental illness should also be screened for cardiovascular disease and vice versa.

• RELATED: Study considers how Georgians spend health care dollars compared to leading diseases, disorders

"Having a heart attack or stroke can trigger a mental health condition, particularly depression and PTSD," Vaccarino said. "And this creates a spiraling of risk — bidirectional spiraling between the mind and the heart."

Vaccarino's study susses out disparities in cardiovascular disease risk and cardiovascular health care that show people who have mental disorders such as depression and anxiety, as well as less common conditions such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and PTSD, face an increased risk of heart disease that's between 50% to 100% as high compared to the general population.

The report associated these conditions with these corresponding risks in developing CVD: major depression, 72%; PTSD, 57%; bipolar disorder, 61%; panic disorder, 50%; phobic anxiety, 70%; and schizophrenia, nearly 100%. 

Strategies to increase access to care are needed on both policy and clinical levels, she said, because, particularly in the U.S., the health care systems treat mental health and cardiovascular health as separate problems even though they are highly connected.

For example, cardiologists may not deal with mental health symptoms. Likewise, psychiatrists may not have the training or time during sessions to assess heart health. 

"We should try to emphasize systems of care that are less fragmented," Vaccarino said — systems of cares that have teams of multidisciplinary specialists and health care workers who work together to address different problems.