Younger women are twice as likely to suffer a heart attack if they have depression, a new study has found.

The findings relate to women under the age of 55.

US researchers looked at over 3,200 people with known or suspected heart disease, one-third of whom were women. They were monitored over a three-year period.

The study found that women under the age of 55 were twice as likely to suffer a heart attack if they were moderately or severely depressed. They were also twice as likely to die of heart disease or require a procedure to open their arteries.

The researchers noted that after taking other heart disease risk factors into account, every one-point increase in symptoms of depression was linked to a 7% increase in the presence of heart disease.

However, in older women and men, depression did not predict the presence of heart disease.

"All people, and especially younger women, need to take depression very seriously. Depression itself is a reason to take action, but knowing that it is associated with an increased risk of heart disease and death should motivate people to seek help," noted the study's author, Dr Amit Shah, of Emory University in Atlanta.

He also emphasised that healthcare professionals ‘need to ask more questions'.

"They need to be aware that young women are especially vulnerable to depression, and that depression may increase the risk to their heart," Dr Shah said.

He also pointed out that women under the age of 55 are more likely to have depression, so this may be a ‘hidden' risk factor that explains why women die at a higher rate than men after a heart attack.

Details of these findings are published in the Journal of the American Heart Association.

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