• Yon Ju Ryu, Eun-Mi Chun, Jin Hwa Lee, and Jung Hyun Chang.
• Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine and Ewha Medical Research Institute, Ewha Medical Center, Ewha Womans University School of Medicine, Seoul, Korea. medyon@ewha.ac.kr
• Korean J. Intern. Med. 2010 Mar 1; 25 (1): 51-7.

Background/AimsPatients with chronic airway lung diseases often experience depression and anxiety, but little information is available regarding Koreans with these conditions. We thus assessed depression and anxiety in Korean patients with chronic airway lung diseases.MethodsThe degree of depression and anxiety in 84 outpatients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), 37 with asthma, 33 with bronchiectasis, and 73 healthy controls were evaluated by the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI).ResultsThe patients with COPD and bronchiectasis had higher BDI scores and were more likely than controls to experience depression ([COPD, 17; range, 0 to 42; prevalence, 55%], [bronchiectasis, 16; range, 3 to 51; prevalence, 55%], [controls, 13; range, 0 to 31; prevalence, 30%], p < 0.05). The state-anxiety scores of the patients were higher than those of the controls, but only the bronchiectasis group demonstrated a higher frequency of state-anxiety compared with the controls (39 vs. 16%, patients vs. controls, p = 0.015). Among all patients, 22% presented with concomitant depression and state-anxiety, and 25% demonstrated depression and trait-anxiety. Depression was positively correlated with both state-anxiety (r = 0.644) and trait-anxiety (r = 0.597, p < 0.0001). Irrespective of individual diagnosis, post-bronchodilator FEV(1) (odds ratio [OR], 0.972; p = 0.027) and smoking history (OR, 3.894; p = 0.018) were independent risk factors for depression in patients with chronic airway lung diseases.ConclusionsChronic airway lung diseases are associated with depression and/or anxiety, particularly in those with a higher airflow limitation and/or history of smoking.

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