The association between cardiovascular drugs and depression/anxiety in patients with cardiovascular disease: A meta-analysis

This study aimed to investigate the association between cardiovascular drugs and depression/anxiety in patients with cardiovascular disease (CVD). This meta-analysis was registered in PROSPERO (International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews; CRD42020197839) and conducted in accordance with the MOOSE (Meta-analysis of Observational Studies in Epidemiology) guidelines. The PubMed, EMBASE, Web of Science, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, Wanfang, and VIP databases were systematically searched to identify all available studies on this topic. Random-effects multivariate meta-regression was performed to investigate the sources of study heterogeneity. Review Manager version 5.3 and Stata 12.0 were used for data analyses. This meta-analysis included 54 studies with a total number of 212,640 patients. Overall, in patients with CVD, aspirin (odds ratio [OR]:0.91, 95% confidence interval [CI]:0.86–0.96, P = 0.02) was associated with a lower risk of depression, while calcium channel blockers (CCB) (OR:1.21, 95%CI:1.05–1.38, P = 0.008), diuretics (OR:1.34, 95%CI:1.14–1.58, P = 0.0005), and nitrate esters (OR:1.32, 95%CI:1.08–1.61, P = 0.006) were associated with a higher risk of depression, additionally, statin (OR:0.79, 95%CI:0.71–0.88, P < 0.0001) was associated with a lower risk of anxiety, but diuretics (OR:1.39, 95%CI:1.26–1.52, P < 0.00001) was associated with a higher risk of anxiety. Subgroup analysis presented that, in patients with hypertension, β-blockers were associated with a higher risk of depression (OR:1.45, 95%CI:1.26–1.67, P < 0.00001); in patients with coronary artery disease (CAD), statin (OR:0.77, 95%CI:0.59–0.99, P = 0.04), and aspirin (OR:0.85, 95%CI:0.75–0.97, P = 0.02) were associated with a lower risk of depression, while CCB (OR:1.32, 95%CI:1.15–1.51, P < 0.0001) and diuretics (OR:1.36, 95%CI:1.12–1.64, P = 0.002) were associated with a higher risk of depression, additionally, diuretics was associated with a higher risk of anxiety (OR:1.41, 95%CI:1.28–1.55, P < 0.00001); in patients with heart failure, nitrate esters (OR:1.93, 95%CI:1.19–3.13, P = 0.007), and diuretics (OR:1.58, 95%CI: 1.02–2.43, P = 0.04) were associated with a higher risk of depression. The use of cardiovascular drugs should be considered when evaluating depression or anxiety in patients with CVD to improve the care and treatment of these patients.