Depression may contribute to the pathogenesis of coronary heart disease (CHD).

An American Heart Association position paper suggests it is unclear if it predicts incident CHD.

We used data from a well-established, longitudinal study of 860 Australian women to answer this question.

Results indicate that a depressive disorder significantly predicts CHD over 18 years.

We conclude that depression is an independent risk factor for CHD incidence in women.

The strength of association was of a greater magnitude than any typical and atypical risk factor.