A first-of-its-kind study of postoperative depression and treatments for depression in cardiac bypass patients is under way at the University of Pittsburgh. Researchers are now recruiting patients for the study, called “Bypassing the Blues,” which will continue through 2007.

The study is funded by a $4.5 million grant from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, which is part of the National Institutes of Health.

Bruce Rollman, assistant professor of medicine and psychiatry in the Pitt School of Medicine, said his team will recruit 300 patients who have recently undergone cardiac bypass surgery at UPMC Presbyterian, UPMC Shadyside, Allegheny General, and West Penn hospitals.

“There are nearly 60,000 cardiac bypass surgeries annually in the United States, and a sizeable percentage of those patients suffer some sort of depression,” Rollman said.

Half of the 300 patients will receive intervention, which will include follow-up contact from nurse care managers. The other 150 patients will serve as a control group and receive the usual postoperative care.

Rollman said that the healthcare community is focused on treating the physical aftermath of bypass surgery, including physical rehabilitation, but little has been done to consider mental well-being and whether intervention might even improve physical recovery.

Coprincipal investigator is Charles F. Reynolds III, professor of psychiatry and neuroscience in the Pitt School of Medicine.