Coronary disease & ACSMeta-analysis
Association between myocardial infarction and depression: bidirectional links and shared risk pathways—a systematic review and meta-analysis
- Systematic review and meta-analysis of prospective cohort and longitudinal studies
- random-effects
Authors' conclusion
MI and depression show bidirectional associations, with each condition conferring an increased risk for the other.
Study context
- Population
- Population-based cohorts reporting time-to-event estimates for either direction of the myocardial infarction (MI)–depression association9 cohort studies
- Comparison
- MI vs no MI; depression vs no depression
- Outcome
- Bidirectional association between MI and depression (pooled adjusted hazard ratios (HRs))
Pooled result
As reported in the abstract
Pooled adjusted hazard ratio (95% CI)
MIsubsequent depression; 2 studies; I2 = 0%
1.41(1.24–1.61)
Depressionincident MI; 8 studies; I2 = 84.7%
1.42(1.29–1.57)
Further pooled results
Age and sex subgroups
- Stronger relative associations among younger individuals and sex-specific differences according to direction (individual-study estimates)
Antidepressant class and MI risk
- Sparse evidence: tricyclic antidepressant use associated with higher observed MI risk; SSRIs not
- exploratory
Original publication
Association between myocardial infarction and depression: bidirectional links and shared risk pathways—a systematic review and meta-analysis. Eur J Prev Cardiol. Published 9 April 2026. doi:10.1093/eurjpc/zwag206
Summarised from the published abstract; every number is checked against it