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. 2015 Oct 19;3(2):2123.
doi: 10.4081/hpr.2015.2123. eCollection 2015 Sep 30.

Investigation of Anxiety and Depression in Patients with Chronic Diseases

Evangelia-Ioanna Gerontoukou  1 , Sofia Michaelidoy  1 , Maria Rekleiti  2 , Maria Saridi  2 , Kyriakos Souliotis  1
Affiliations

Investigation of Anxiety and Depression in Patients with Chronic Diseases

Evangelia-Ioanna Gerontoukou et al. Health Psychol Res. .

Abstract

The health of an individual depends on both his/her physical and psychological condition. In recent years it has been observed that chronic patients have frequently an affected psycho-emotional state. The purpose of this study is to investigate anxiety and depression in patients with chronic diseases and the correlation of the results with daily physical activity levels and individual health levels, as well comorbidity. This study included patients with chronic diseases that were treated in a local general hospital or were visiting often outpatient clinics of the same hospital due to their condition. The sample in this particular study included 204 patients; 118 of them were women and 86 men. From the total sample that participated in our research, 118 (57.8%) were females and the majority of the participants were secondary/basic education graduates (67%), married (71%), living in urban areas (53%). Hypertension was the most frequent chronic disease in our sample, followed by hypercholesterolemia and diabetes mellitus. Comparing the occurrence of depression and anxiety symptoms in both questionnaires in relation to the expected frequency in the general population, significant levels of depression and anxiety symptoms were recorded. Taking into consideration the findings of this research, anxiety and depression symptoms can have profound effects regarding the control of chronic diseases, the patients' quality of life and their general health.

Keywords: Anxiety; chronic diseases; depression; hypertension.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of interest: the authors declare no potential conflict of interest.

Conflict of interests: the authors report no conflict of interests.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Categorization of responses to the questionnaire Bedford & Fould (A, scale depression; B, anxiety scale) and the questionnaire Zoung (C).
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Comparative presentation of the frequency of symptoms of anxiety and depression in both questionnaires compared with the expected frequency in the general population.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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