• Marion Eisele, Anja Rakebrandt, Sigrid Boczor, Eva Blozik, Jens-Martin Träder, Stefan Störk, Christoph Herrmann-Lingen, and Martin Scherer.
• Department of General Practice and Primary Care, Center for Psychosocial Medicine, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany.
• Fam Pract. 2022 May 28; 39 (3): 346-353.

BackgroundDepression and anxiety are more prevalent in patients with heart failure (HF) than in the general population and reduce quality of life (QoL); therefore, clinical guidelines recommend screening HF patients for depression/anxiety.ObjectiveWe investigated, whether the general practitioners' (GPs) awareness of patients' symptoms of depression and/or anxiety (psychosocial distress) was associated with a change in QoL.MethodsIn this prospective observational study, we recruited 3,129 primary care HF patients in Germany. Patients completed baseline and 12-month follow-up questionnaires. Their GPs were interviewed. We identified 666 patients with psychosocial distress and compared 2 groups by analysis of covariance: 235 patients with psychosocial distress whose GP was aware of the psychosocial distress and 431 patients with psychosocial distress whose GP was unaware of such distress. Primary outcome was the change in QoL, assessed by the EQ-5D visual analogue scale.ResultsPatients with psychosocial distress showed lower baseline QoL than those without (45.9 vs 64.1; P < 0.001). Within the patients with psychosocial distress, the GPs' awareness of psychosocial distress was not associated with improvement of QoL (F = 1.285; P = 0.258) or remission of psychosocial distress (odds ratio = 0.887; P = 0.608).ConclusionWe found no association between the GPs' awareness of psychosocial distress and change in QoL. Although data for effective treatments of depression in HF are currently insufficient, psychosocial distress strongly impairs the QoL in HF patients. These findings might influence the development of clinical practice guidelines in HF.© The Author(s) 2021. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

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