Researchers have revealed that women who survive cardiac arrest are at more risk of developing anxiety and depression than male survivors.

The research team made the findings by examining how socioeconomic and mental health outcomes changed over five years for men and women who experienced out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA). They studied 259 women and 996 men in North Holland, the Netherlands, who survived 30 days after cardiac arrest incidents between 2009 and 2015.

The researchers analyzed changes in employment, income, primary earner status, and incidence of anxiety or depression among participants from the year before their cardiac arrest to five years after the incident, testing for differences between sexes.

"OHCA survivors experience changes in employment, income, and primary earner status similar to the general population. However, women who survived OHCA more often received anxiety/depression medication in the years following OHCA," the researchers wrote in the study results published in the journal Circulation Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes.

The study noted that individuals who survive a cardiac arrest are more likely to face issues regarding employment and earnings. It showed a decline in employment rates (from 72.8% to 53.4% for women and 80.9% to 63.7% for men) and a decrease in median income.

"We saw significant decreases in employment rates and, consequently, earnings. Further, we also saw a change in 'primary earner status' - meaning that the member of a household who had the highest earnings frequently changed after a cardiac arrest. Suggesting that it was difficult for individuals to return to the labour market," researcher Robin Smits, a doctoral student at Amsterdam University Medical Center, said in a news release.

However, the dispensing of anxiety/depression medication increased only in women, especially after 1 year and 5 years.

"We looked at many factors to determine the five-year consequences of a cardiac arrest, here we saw, most significantly, a 50% rise in antidepressant prescription in the first year among women that was not mirrored in men. This rise then tapered off to around a 20% increase in prescriptions after five years," Smits said.

"While we need to carry out more research to understand exactly why this happens, we can already say that it shows that particularly women are not adequately supported after a cardiac arrest," Smits added.

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