Peer support can reduce negative effects of a heart attack—study
POSTED September 1, 2010 - 16:09 | POSTED BY neha gupta
Last edited by Silky Chandvani on September 1, 2010 - 17:42
Social interaction is capable of reducing the depressive symptoms and regulating the cardiovascular functioning after an attack, the study confirms.
Male mice studied
The study looked at male mice that were implanted with a device similar to ECG in human that transmitted data on heart functions.
The mice were randomly distributed in 2 groups. One of the groups was kept in isolation while the other was kept with a female companion for 2 weeks.
After the completion of the study period, some of the mice were given a surgically induced heart attack, after which they were resuscitated.
The rest of the mice were placed in a control group that did not undergo the surgical attack.
The mice which were given the attack were analyzed 24 hours, three days or seven days after the heart attack on myriad measures of health.
Results of the study
The mice that were with a companion after the heart attack suffered less damage as compared to those who lived alone on almost every measure.
"The only difference in those groups was the living arrangements.
"Something as simple as living with another mouse can cut in half the amount of cell death in the brain as a result of cardiac arrest," Greg Norman, lead author of the study and doctoral student in psychology at Ohio State University was quoted as saying
Those living with partners also had more normal control of heart rate variability, the study claims.
Mice in isolation revealed more than double the neuronal cell death in the hippocampus area of the brain.
The results also showed symptoms that socially isolated mice had more activity in the brain associated with the creation of pro-inflammatory chemicals, such as tumor necrosis factor alpha.
"The results really get at the profound influence that the social environment can have on health after cardiac arrest,” Norman said. "This is another way that social interaction is able to improve health functioning after a heart attack."
The findings were published in the online edition of the 'Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.'
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