Sleeping Can Be Hard After Surgery
Its hard to find a comfortable position to sleep in. If you are a side or belly sleeper it can be hard laying on your back. Finding your favorite chest pillow will be your savior. You might also experience nightmares for a bit after surgery, but it will pass. If you continue to experience them, speak to your doctor and seek help if you feel like you are experiencing PTSD.
Depression Can Be Deadly After Bypass
More Depressed Patients Die After Bypass Surgery Than Non-Depressed
Aug. 21, 2003 — Heart patients who suffer from depression immediately before or after coronary artery bypass surgery face an increased risk of early death, Duke University researchers report.
Depressed patients followed for an average of five years after the bypass surgery were twice as likely to die as patients who were not depressed in the largest and longest study of its kind.
Although researchers did not measure the impact of treating depression on outcomes, they suggest that screening for it before and after surgery could improve patient outcome. Their findings are published in the Aug. 23 issue of the journal The Lancet.
“Despite our advances in surgical and medical management of patients after coronary artery bypass surgery, depression is an important independent predictor of death after surgery and should be carefully monitored and treated if necessary,” researcher and clinical psychologist James Blumenthal, PhD, says in a news release. “We believe that psychological assessment before and after surgery could be a low-cost and relatively easy way of potentially saving lives.”
There were 122 deaths during a follow-up. Death occurred in about 10% of those who were not depressed before or after bypass surgery, compared with 19% for those who were persistently depressed.
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The Lancet
You May Experience Memory Loss And/or Brain Fog
There are a couple of things that can cause memory loss and brain fog after open-heart surgery. If you were put on bypass, it can cause these issues. It is also called pump head. Post-operative cognitive dysfunction can also cause memory loss. Both of these are usually short-term but can have the possibility of long-term effects. For the first six months, I really struggled with memory loss and brain fog. As time went on, it started to get better and I started to regain my memory and wasnt so foggy-headed.
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Personality And Emotional Side Effects Of Open
People who have had open heart surgery report mood changes, as do people close to them. Anxiety and depression are the most commonly experienced emotions after heart surgery. Anxiety can be caused, in part, by worries about possible physical aftereffects of the surgery. Keep in mind that full recovery from open heart surgery can take up to one year.
Up To 25% Of Patients Experience Cardiac Depression
Although you may think of your moods as being somewhat dependent on how you feel or on your progress, especially after a major surgery, a positive outlook during recovery can improve your physical healing process. There are some provenstrategies to help you improve your odds for feeling good during recovery.
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What Happens After Open
When you wake up after surgery, you will have two or three tubes in your chest. These are to help drain fluid from the area around your heart. You may have intravenous lines in your arm to supply you with fluids, as well as a catheter in your bladder to remove urine.
You will also be attached to machines that monitor your heart. Nurses will be nearby to help you if something should arise.
You will usually spend your first night in the intensive care unit . You will then be moved to a regular care room for the next three to seven days.
Taking care of yourself at home immediately after the surgery is an essential part of your recovery.
Study Population And Data Sources
All patients over 18 years of age who underwent a primary isolated CABG in Sweden during 19922017 were identified from the SWEDEHEART registry.
The Swedish Total Population Register held by Statistics Sweden was used to assign four controls without cardiac surgery for each CABG patient, matched by sex, age, and home county . Date of inclusion of the controls was the day of surgery for the matching CABG patient. Patients and controls with a previous history of depression were excluded . Flowchart describing the inclusion and exclusion process is presented in Supplementary material online, Figure S1.
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How Truly Common Is Depression After Heart Bypass Surgery
Patients have reported depression and memory loss after heart surgery for many decades, and initially was thought to be a result of the unnatural state of being on the heart lung machine, says Michael Fiocco, MD, Chief of Open Heart Surgery at Union Memorial Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland, one of the nations top 50 heart hospitals.
The latest data shows that depression and memory loss after heart surgery are directly related to your preop mental state, says Dr. Fiocco.
In other words, these patients have undiagnosed memory loss or depression coming into the surgery, and it becomes amplified post-op.
With todays techniques and the approach that stresses to the patient that the surgery is performed for them to return to their normal life, new-onset depression is very rare.
Your Personality And Mood May Change After Open
After open-heart surgery, many people experience personality and mood changes. The most commonly experienced emotions are depression, fatigue and anxiety. These can be caused by being on bypass, anesthesia, or medication such as oxycontin. You may experience mood swings like crying or getting angry or easily frustrated.
I mostly experienced this after my second open heart surgery when I was a teenager and my third open-heart surgery. After both of them, I experienced depression, anxiety and PTSD. Before my second open heart surgery, I was more outgoing but afterward, my personality changed and I was quieter and self-reflective. I struggled with suicidal thoughts and mood swings. After my most recent surgery, I finally got the therapy I needed after years of not seeking help. If you are struggling, please find help, be open with your doctor and make sure you have someone to talk to.
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Open Heart Surgery And Depression
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Patients who undergo open heart surgery or are recovering from a myocardial infarction will frequently suffer from depression. This depression can start 3-5 days after the event or as late as several months later. There is some thought that depression might be a result of mourning a loss of potential, or loss of physical activity. In the case of open heart surgery and depression the event can also be a result of anesthesia, loss of activity or facing mortality.
Researchers have found that generally patients depression is transient and psychotherapy may be their best treatment. Physicians can also help pre-operatively by calming fears and dispelling myths about cardiac conditions. Talking before open heart surgery and depression can also help adaptive coping for both the patient and the family. Research has also found that good information prior to open heart surgery and depression will correct unrealistic expectations and reduce uncertainty. Prior to open heart surgery and depression therapy is used to help the patient to increase their sense of self control and begin more appropriate coping patterns and strategies.
It isnt only the patient who may suffer from depression following the surgical event. The family or significant other may need help dealing with the stress of the situation, the heightened responsibility and the care of a patient after a crisis situation.
Beware Of Depression And Anxiety After Heart Surgery
Posted on February 21st, 2017
When someone has heart surgery or has suffered a cardiac event , the first priority is stabilizing their physical health. However, at the Community Reach Center, your Denver mental health center, we counsel people who have had heart surgery, and their families, to be aware of the potential mental health impact.
Not surprisingly, people who have been affected by heart disease are prone to developing depression and anxiety. In fact, according to the American Heart Association, while depression is reported in roughly 1 in 10 Americans ages 18 and older, the number can be as high as 33 percent in heart attack patients.
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How Is Depression Diagnosed
The biggest hurdle to diagnosing and treating depression is recognizing that someone is suffering from it. Unfortunately, approximately half of the people who experience depression are never diagnosed or treated for their illness. And not getting treatment can be life-threatening: up to 10 percent of people battling depression commit suicide.
Your health care provider can evaluate your condition by asking you to describe your symptoms. Since patients recovering from a medical illness, hospitalization or surgical procedure experience some common symptoms of depression including fatigue and insomnia,your health care provider will pay attention to these additional symptoms of depression:
- Withdrawal from activities
- Lack of reactivity from visits with family and friends Increased negative thoughts
- Tearfulness
Sometimes, symptoms of depression can be made worse by certain medications, a physical disorder, virus or illness. Your health care provider may perform a physical exam or laboratory tests to determine if there is a physical cause for your depressive symptoms.
Your health care provider will also evaluate your personal and family medical history, as well as any history of drug or alcohol use.
Although there are no specific blood tests used to diagnose depression, there are various screening tools and diagnostic criteria used to make the proper diagnosis.
Anxiety And Depression In Valve Surgery
Not only CABG but valve surgery procedures also are more common surgical treatment for cardiovascular disease, and some patients need both procedures. There were less psychological studies of patients with VS than those of patients with CABG.
There were a few prospective studies to patients with VS and/or CABG. Preoperative anxiety and/or depression would predict postoperative patients QOL , persistent depression , worse physical condition , mortality, and mobidity . These studies did not show the mean of anxiety and depression of patients with VS and/or CABG.
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Depression After Heart Bypass Surgery Isnt Just About Feeling Depressed Over Clogged Arteries But The Depression Can Have Other Related Causes
How expected or common is depression after coronary bypass surgery?
The University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine study showed that coronary bypass patients who had depression after surgery, fared a lot better with a phone-based, nurse-led care team, than did people who did not receive this added care to their heart surgeons standard rehab care protocols.
Study findings appear in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
However, 20 to 25 percent of patients experienced depression following coronary bypass surgery, says this outdated study that was published in 2009.
Unlocking The Link Between Heart Surgery And Depression
Why is there such a strong link between heart surgery and depression? It is frightening to watch someone you love going through heart surgery. It is devastating to see them fall into depression afterwards. Coronary surgery is known to result in depression, with estimates of between one third to three quarters of those recovering experiencing some degree of depression. When we see the shifts in the energy of the Heart Chakra that surgery leaves open, we can also see the pathway out of this depression.
Our physical bodies are interlaced into our energy bodies , and the two interact beautifully together. Science is beginning to observe the ways in which changes in our physical bodies create a corresponding effect on our energy bodies , and likewise, shifts within our auras create dramatic changes within our physical bodies.
Our physical bodies are so beautifully constructed an intricate lacework of trillions of cells, organs, bones and nerves. Likewise our energy body has its own intricacy of rippling wavelengths of biomagnetic potential that modern science is only beginning to be able to measure. For eons, intuitives and yogis have described an egg shaped coherence of energy with vortexes of increasing frequency the Chakras extending from the base of the spine to the top of the spine, corresponding along the spine to the top of the head and into the aura. The balance and free flowing energy of these Chakras is essential in living a happy and healthy life.
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A Chest Pillow Is A Must
Having a pillow to stabilize your chest is a must. Most hospitals will send you home with one, but if they dont, make sure to get one. Chest pillows can help you when you sleep, sneeze, and cough they have has many uses. I had a pillow with me for almost a year after my last surgery and I still usee one during long trips in the car.
The Realities Of Cardiac Depression After Open Heart Surgery
By Adam Pick on August 2, 2007
I just received an interesting email from Carol that directly relates to heart surgery recovery. Carol writes, Hi Adam My husband had mitral valve replacement three weeks ago. Im curious Did you experience depression after heart valve surgery? Is it common for patients to experience cardiac depression following heart valve repair or heart valve replacement?
Let me start by answering Carols first question. Yes, I did experience both heart surgery and depression. I had my pulmonary and aortic valves replaced in 2005. As for cardiac depression, I did not have any immediate form of depression during my 5 days in the hospital or during the first three weeks following my heart valve replacement surgery recovery. However, as I entered into my fourth week of recovery, I did begin to experience many symptoms of this post-operative condition.
Needless to say, this was not a very fun time in my life. Pre-surgery, I was a very upbeat person. For me, the glass was always half-full. Im an optimist that believes anything is possible. Post-surgery, however, I was exactly the opposite. I was lethargic, anxious, confused, pessimistic and isolated. I was also having issues sleeping.
What a miserable experience for me and all of my caregivers, especially my fiance . I was a mess. And, my family I dont know how they put up with me!!! Thank goodness those dark days are lonnnnnnnnnnng gone.
Keep on tickin!
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Perioperative Anxiety And Depression In Open
Eighty patients completed state-anxiety and depression inventories on the day before, 7 days after, and 6 months after open-heart surgery. The patients with high, moderate, or low anticipatory anxiety still had relatively high, moderate, and low anxiety, respectively, in the postoperative period, supporting the linear relationship between preoperative and postoperative arousal. Omitting the items on somatic-vegetative complaints from the global depression score reveals that cardiac surgical patients do not experience significant postoperative changes in depression related to cognitive-affective symptoms. The preoperative assessment of emotional arousal significantly predicts the level of emotional distress after surgery.
- Previous article in issue
Depression Among Patients Undergoing Cardiac Surgery
The term major depressive episode is used to refer to a psychiatric diagnosis of unipolar depression episode as distinct from bipolar depression, adjustment disorders, and other types of mood disorders. The cardinal symptoms of major depressive episode include depressed mood and/ or loss of interest or pleasure among other cognitive and somatic symptoms described subsequently. The prevalence of major depressive episode is 1520% among patients undergoing coronary artery bypass graft surgery. Comparatively, prevalence estimates among the general population is 59% for females and 23% among males . Collectively, research to date indicates that the number of patients affected by any depression approximates between 20% and 30% of patients undergoing CABG surgery depending on concurrent comorbidity rates, and a summary is provided in Table 1. A notable limitation of these studies, however, is the low sample size, highlighting a need for further research.
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Anxiety And Depression In Thoracic Aortic Surgery
Instead of recent improvement of the surgical treatment of cardiovascular diseases, the hospital mortality rate for thoracic aortic surgery is still high compared to coronary artery bypass grafting surgery . Some adverse complications of TAS can be extremely serious . TAS is included in the same surgical repertoire as CABG in terms of open heart surgery, but it has a worse postoperative outcome. A few studies on psychological outcome have been conducted in TAS patients .
We surveyed 190 patients who underwent TAS or CABG at intervals of 15 years after the procedure, and then analyzed 128 patients with TAS or CABG as the primary surgery. Psychological outcomes were assessed using the hospital anxiety and depression scale . The incidence of mild anxiety in TAS and CABG patients was five vs. six , respectively, and depression was present in nine and seven , respectively. The incidence of severe anxiety in TAS and CABG patients was four vs. seven , respectively, and depression was present in four and seven , respectively. Psychological outcomes scores for the two groups did not differ significantly .
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Barbara M Murphy, Ph.D. is the Director of Research at the Heart Research Centre in Melbourne, Australia. Dr. Murphy is the leading thought leader on personality changes after heart surgery.
Her goal is to bring awareness of personality changes after heart surgery into more public discourse. Heres what she had to say about men like Alan:
About four out of five patients do experience the cardiac blues, and what we want to do is normalize it and reassure patients that it is likely to resolve in the first few months.
The heart event isnt just a physical event, its an emotional event as well, and these things are likely to happen. However, in some cases the symptoms do not resolve and can develop into full-blown depression. Barbara M. Murphy Ph.D.
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