• Rossane Frizzo de Godoy, Paulo José Zimermann Teixeira, Benno Becker Júnior, Maurício Michelli, and Dagoberto Vanoni de Godoy.
• Departamento de Psicologia, Instituto de Medicina do Esporte, Universidade de Caxias do Sul, Caxias do Sul, RS, Brasil.
• J Bras Pneumol. 2009 Feb 1; 35 (2): 129-36.

ObjectiveTo assess the 24-month effects of a pulmonary rehabilitation program (PRP) on anxiety, depression, quality of life and physical performance of COPD patients.MethodsThirty patients with COPD (mean age, 60.8 +/- 10 years; 70% males) participated in a 12-week PRP, which included 24 physical exercise sessions, 24 respiratory rehabilitation sessions, 12 psychotherapy sessions and 3 educational sessions. All patients were evaluated at baseline (pre-PRP), at the end of the treatment (post-PRP) and two years later (current) by means of four instruments: the Beck Anxiety Inventory; the Beck Depression Inventory; Saint George's Respiratory Questionnaire; and the six-minute walk test (6MWT).ResultsThe comparison between the pre-PRP and post-PRP values revealed a significant decrease in the levels of anxiety (pre-PRP: 10.7 +/- 6.3; post-PRP: 5.5 +/- 4.4; p = 0.0005) and depression (pre-PRP: 11.7 +/- 6.8; post-PRP: 6.0 +/- 5.8; p = 0.001), as well as significant improvements in the distance covered on the 6MWT (pre-PRP: 428.6 +/- 75.0 m; post-PRP: 474.9 +/- 86.3 m; p = 0.03) and the quality of life index (pre-PRP: 51.0 +/- 15.9; post-PRP: 34.7 +/- 15.1; p = 0.0001). There were no statistically significant differences between the post-PRP and current evaluation values.ConclusionsThe benefits provided by the PRP in terms of the indices of anxiety, depression and quality of life, as well as the improved 6MWT performance, persisted throughout the 24-month study period.

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