• Dinesh Mittal, John C Fortney, Jeffrey M Pyne, Mark J Edlund, and Julie L Wetherell.
• Health Services Research and Development Center for Mental Healthcare and Outcomes Research, Central Arkansas Veterans Healthcare System, 2200 Fort Roots Drive, Building 58 (152/NLR), Little Rock, AR 72114, USA. dmittal@uams.edu
• Psychiatr Serv. 2006 Dec 1;57(12):1731-7.

ObjectiveThis study examined the impact of comorbid anxiety disorders-posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), generalized anxiety disorder, and panic disorder-on health-related quality of life among primary care patients enrolled in a collaborative care depression intervention study for the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).MethodsBaseline data were used from 324 participants in the Telemedicine Enhanced Antidepressant Management (TEAM) Study, a multisite randomized effectiveness trial targeting VA primary care patients with depression. Health-related quality of life was measured by using the Quality of Well-Being Scale, self-administered version (QWB-SA) and the mental component summary (MCS-12V) and physical component summary (PCS-12V) of the 12-item Short Form Health Survey for Veterans (SF-12V).ResultsA majority of participants (69 percent) had at least one anxiety disorder. Generalized anxiety disorder and PTSD predicted scores on the QWB-SA. PTSD predicted scores on the PCS-12V, but none of the comorbid anxiety disorders predicted scores on the MCS-12V. In addition, social support, depression severity, and the number of chronic medical conditions significantly predicted QWB-SA scores; the number of self-reported chronic physical health conditions and the number of depression episodes significantly predicted PCS-12V scores; and social support and depression severity significantly predicted MCS-12V scores.ConclusionsAccording to scores on the QWB-SA, generalized anxiety disorder and PTSD comorbid with major depressive disorder impair health-related quality of life above and beyond major depressive disorder alone.

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