Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2014 Jun;6(6):240-9.
doi: 10.4103/1947-2714.134368.

Depression in pulmonary arterial hypertension and interstitial lung diseases

Sameer Verma  1 , Jose Cardenas-Garcia  1 , Prasanta R Mohapatra  2 , Arunabh Talwar  1
Affiliations
Review

Depression in pulmonary arterial hypertension and interstitial lung diseases

Sameer Verma et al. N Am J Med Sci. 2014 Jun.

Abstract

Advanced lung diseases such as pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) and interstitial lung diseases (ILD) are chronic diseases that cause significantly high morbidity and mortality. As a result, patients can undergo some psychological changes leading to a poor quality of life and depression. Diagnosis of depression is often obscured because fatigue and apathy, two common symptoms of depression, frequently overlap with PAH and ILD. Healthcare providers are sometimes reluctant to ask or mistakenly believe that these symptoms are part of the ongoing disease process, rather than a serious condition like depression. Screening tools are available for physicians to be well positioned in recognizing clinical depression in PAH and ILD. A MedLine/PubMED search was performed identifying all relevant articles with "PAH", "ILD", "screening tools" and/or "Depression" in the title. The aim of this review is to provide a brief description of some of the instruments used to screen patients and classes of psychotropic medications accessible to physicians. While pulmonary rehabilitation programs can have a positive impact on patients, physicians should also utilize cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) as part of regular care.

Keywords: Depression; Interstitial lung diseases; Medications; Pulmonary arterial hypertension; Screening tools.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of Interest: None declared.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Overlap of depressive symptoms in lung diseases
Figure 2
Figure 2
Various medications used to treat depression and the neurotransmitters involved. ‡SNRIs = selective norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor, SSRIs = selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, TCAs = tricyclic antidepressants, MAO-Is = mono-amine oxidase inhibitors. ‡‡5-HT = serotonin, NE = norephinepherine, DA = dopamine, α2 = alpha 2 receptors
Figure 3
Figure 3
Co-relationship between depression and PAH/ILD
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. de Ridder D, Geenen R, Kuijer R, van Middendorp H. Psychological adjustment to chronic disease. Lancet. 2008;372:246–55. - PubMed
    1. Shanmugam G, Bhutani S, Khan DA, Brown ES. Psychiatric considerations in pulmonary disease. Psychiatr Clin North Am. 2007;30:761–80. - PubMed
    1. Ain A, Lolak S. Psychiatric aspects of chronic lung disease. Curr Psychiatry Rep. 2009;11:219–25. - PubMed
    1. Text Revision. 4th ed. Washington DC: American Psychiatric Association; 2000. American Psychiatric Association. Diagnostic and statistical manual for mental disorders.
    1. Belmaker RH, Agam G. Major depressive disorder. N Engl J Med. 2008;358:55–68. - PubMed