Redefining psychocardiology: Integrating depression management into heart failure care for enhanced long-term recovery and prognosis

doi:10.5498/wjp.v16.i6.116288

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World Journal of Psychiatry

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2220-3206

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Baishideng Publishing Group Inc, 7041 Koll Center Parkway, Suite 160, Pleasanton, CA 94566, USA

Opinion Review

Copyright: ©Author(s) 2026. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license. No commercial re-use. See permissions. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc.

World J Psychiatry. Jun 19, 2026; 16(6): 116288
Published online Jun 19, 2026. doi: 10.5498/wjp.v16.i6.116288

Redefining psychocardiology: Integrating depression management into heart failure care for enhanced long-term recovery and prognosis

Kai-Yuan Cen, Xiang-Long Liang, Ming-Liang Zhang

Kai-Yuan Cen, Xiang-Long Liang, Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, Guidong People’s Hospital of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, The Affiliated Guidong Hospital of Guilin Medical University, Wuzhou 543000, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China

Ming-Liang Zhang, Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, Heilongjiang Provincial Hospital, Harbin 150036, Heilongjiang Province, China

Co-first authors: Kai-Yuan Cen and Xiang-Long Liang.

Author contributions: Cen KY and Liang XL drafted the manuscript, and they contributed equally to this manuscript as co-first authors; Cen KY and Zhang ML critically revised the manuscript for important intellectual content and provided supervision. All authors have read and approved the final version of the manuscript.

AI contribution statement: The authors confirm that ChatGPT was used only to improve the language, grammar, clarity, and readability of the manuscript. The authors carefully reviewed, revised, and approved all AI-assisted language edits and take full responsibility for the accuracy, originality, and integrity of the final manuscript.

Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.

Corresponding author: Ming-Liang Zhang, MD, Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, Heilongjiang Provincial Hospital, No. 82 Zhongshan Road, Xiangfang District, Harbin 150036, Heilongjiang Province, China. czhiming202211@163.com

Received: November 10, 2025
Revised: November 26, 2025
Accepted: January 4, 2026
Published online: June 19, 2026
Processing time: 201 Days and 22.7 Hours

Core Tip

Core Tip: Depression is common in heart failure (HF) and reliably identifies patients at higher risk of poor self-care, rehospitalization, and death, yet treating depression has not consistently improved hard HF outcomes. Using new data from a retrospective cohort study, this review calls for a pragmatic form of “psychocardiology”: Routinely screening for depression; embedding simple collaborative-care models into HF services; and using digital tools cautiously as supports rather than standalone solutions. The goal is not to promise fewer HF events, but to reduce the avoidable suffering associated with living with both HF and depression.