Depression is common in patients with ischaemic heart disease and preoperative depression is a risk factor following coronary artery bypass grafting. The American Heart Association recommends depression screening in all patients with heart disease. Our aim was to assess the feasibility and results of a depression screening program in cardiac surgery patients.

We introduced a depression screening project at the cardiac surgery department at Karolinska University Hospital and included patients between 2013 and 2016. Patients scheduled for elective surgery recieved the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9), a depression screening instrument, by mail approximately 2weeks before surgery. Urgent patients recieved the PHQ-9 on the ward. Baseline characteristics, medical history, and medications were collected from patient charts, and entered into a study database together with the results from the PHQ-9 questionaires.

During the study period, 2,512 patients underwent cardiac sugery; 1,133 (45%) completed PHQ-9. The response-rate in patients scheduled for elective surgery was 64%, and 15% in urgent patients. Fifteen per cent (15%) had a PHQ-9 score ≥10 suggestive of major depression. Reporting a PHQ-9 score ≥10 was twice as common in women as in men (23% vs 12%).

Systematic depression screening using PHQ-9 in cardiac surgery patients was feasible and not very resource-intensive. The project showed a satisfactory response-rate in elective patients, but adjustments to increase the response-rate in urgent patients are needed. Future studies should investigate if and how patients with symptoms of depression would benefit from depression management.