Healthy middle-aged women with feelings of hopelessness may develop neck artery thickening, a risk factor for stroke, UPI quoted U.S. researchers as saying. Researchers at the University of Minnesota Medical School looked at 559 women -- average age 50, 62 percent white, 38 percent African-American -- who were generally healthy and did not show signs of clinical cardiovascular disease. Susan A. Everson-Rose and colleagues measured hopelessness with a questionnaire assessing expectancies regarding future and personal goals. Depressive symptoms were measured with a 20-item Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale. Thickness of neck arteries was assessed using ultrasound. The study, published online in Stroke: Journal of the American Heart Association, found hopelessness -- negative thinking and feelings of uselessness -- affects arteries independent of clinical depression and before women develop clinically relevant cardiovascular disease. The researchers found a consistent, progressive and linear association between increasing neck artery thickness and rising levels of hopelessness.
