Identifying Risk Factors For Depression Among COPD Patients

Identifying Risk Factors For Depression Among COPD Patients

Patients passion from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) typically allow from depression more frequently than those on the outside of COPD, resulting in higher levels of disability and illness and increasing the overall healthcare weight for the COPD population. Now, a study from researchers in Argentina indicates pistil-bearing COPD patients and patients who experience significant shortness of breath may desire the greatest risk for developing indentation.

The results of the study were presented at the ATS 2013 International Conference.

"About 10 percent of the lax population suffers from depression, and studies own shown that rate to be significantly higher in patients through COPD," said study lead author Orlando Lopez Jove, MD, capital of the pulmonary laboratory at the Hospital Cetrangolo in Buenos Aires. "Not every COPD patient will suffer from dimple, and being able to identify which patients are most at risk could have ing a valuable tool in ensuring those patients take counseling and other treatment that could take part with improve their quality of life.

"In this study, we wanted to learn whether or not factors including gender, lifestyle habits, COPD austerity, shortness of breath and overall trait of life were related to the frequent occurrence of depression in COPD patients, and on the supposition that they were related, to try to decide the extent of that relationship," he reported.

For their study, the researchers evaluated 113 COPD patients who were treated at the Hospital Cetrangolo in Buenos Aires from January 2009 to March 2011 and who had not had exacerbations of their distemper within the previous 30-day phrase. Patients were evaluated for pulmonary office and for the degree of imperfection of breath they experienced, as well of the same kind with other physical characteristics including weight and dead mass index (BMI). The researchers used foregoing diagnoses of depression and the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) to resolve the presence and level of dole and the Saint George's Respiratory Questionnaire (SGRQ) to evaluate capacity of life measures for each indefatigable, and they also looked at peculiar lifestyle factors and habits like smoking and evaluated race history of depression. Patients were considered to be physically active if they engaged in natural activity for at least 150 minutes reaped ground week, the amount recommended by the American Heart Association to uphold good health.

At the end of the study, the researchers discovered that though the severity of COPD and smoking had t one bearing on whether or not a resigned had depression or their level of dolefulness, patients who were female and those experiencing betokening shortness of breath were at a significantly greater jeopardize for the condition. They also establish that the presence of depression and its energy had a direct bearing on a sufferer's quality of life, affecting both the total quality-of-life notch and the score for individual factors moderated by the SGRQ.

The researchers in addition identified physical activity as a protective factor against depression, meaning patients who had higher levels of material activity were less prone to developing perversion.

"Depression is a disorder which posthumous works easily undiagnosed due to underpresentation and inasmuch as the symptoms are not very specific," said Dr. Lopez Jove, who is furthermore vice-director of the pathophysiology sphere of duty at the Latin American Thoracic Association (ALAT). "Therefore, it is weighty to consider this disorder in patients with COPD, especially in female patients and patients who continued significant shortness of breath.

A coming time planned study will help evaluate in what state treatment of depression affects these patients and their condition of life, he said.

"COPD patients be obliged to deal not only with the pertaining to physics consequences of the disease, but they moreover must deal with the psychological consequences of COPD," Dr. Lopez Jove famous. "Patients with depression often suffer from near the ground self-confidence or self-efficacy, and forward diagnosis and treatment of depression is highly important for improving a patient's nature of life, maximizing healthcare utilization and improving treatment outcomes."