Studying the level of anxiety and depression in patients with chronic somatic pathologies

IntroductionAmong numerous emotional conditions found in somatic patients are, first of all, emotional pressure, depression, aggression, frustration, and emotional stress described as anxiety. Many authors analyze the role of negative emotional conditions with respect to the development of psychosomatic diseases.AimThe aim of this paper was to study the level of anxiety and depression in patients with ischemic heart disease (IHD), chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases (COPD), and asthma.Materials and MethodsBy means of the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) (Zigmond A., Snaith R., 1983) we investigated 68 IHD patients, 52 COPD patients and 57 asthma patients. The control group consisted of 30 healthy people comparable with respect to sex and age with the patients studied.Results and discussionThe analysis of particular indicators taken from the HADS shows that patients with IHD, asthma, and COPD exhibit clinical levels of anxiety significantly exceeding the respective indicator in the control group (χ2 = 7.9, р < 0.05). However, these levels are higher in IHD, than in asthma and COPD (χ2 = 14.7, р < 0.001). According to the test, in COPD there is a tendency towards an increased clinical level of depression in comparison with IHD (> 0.1), whereas this indicator shows normal and subclinical values in asthma.ConclusionsThus, we have established that disturbing and depressive frustrations occur more frequently in patients with chronic somatic pathologies than among healthy subjects. It is obvious that the analyzed emotional frustrations negatively affect the formation of an internal picture of the disease and, also, patients’ reactions to treatment.Timely diagnostics and targeted corrections of anxiety and depression in patients with somatic pathologies will allow physicians to improve both treatment results and a patient's quality of life.