Pre-surgical depression and anxiety and recovery following coronary artery bypass graft surgery

Lydia Poole, Amy Ronaldson, Tara Kidd, Elizabeth Leigh, Marjan Jahangiri, Andrew Steptoe

We aimed to explore the combined contribution of pre-surgical depression and anxiety symptoms for recovery following coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) using data from 251 participants. Participants were assessed prior to surgery for depression and anxiety symptoms and followed up at 12 months to assess pain and physical symptoms, while hospital emergency admissions and death/major adverse cardiac events (MACE) were monitored on average 2.68 years after CABG. After controlling for covariates, baseline anxiety symptoms, but not depression, were associated with greater pain (β = 0.231, p = 0.014) and greater physical symptoms (β = 0.194, p = 0.034) 12 months after surgery. On the other hand, after controlling for covariates, baseline depression symptoms, but not anxiety, were associated with greater odds of having an emergency admission (OR 1.088, CI 1.010-1.171, p = 0.027) and greater hazard of death/MACE (HR 1.137, CI 1.042-1.240, p = 0.004). These findings point to different pathways linking mood symptoms with recovery after CABG surgery.