No abstract

Background:Major depressive disorder is a common condition with a high rate of recurrence, chronicity, and affecting economic burden, including disability in the workplace, which leads to negative consequences on both individuals and society.Objectives:This study aimed to estimate the impact of cognitive dysfunction, as declared by the patient, on performing daily tasks/activities among patients with major depression disorder (MDD).Methods:This investigation is based on multinational cross-sectional survey of 499 workers recruited from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) and United Arab Emirates (UAE). We assessed the severity of depression by Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS). Impact of Depression in the Workplace in Europe Audit (IDEA) survey and trial making test (TMT) parts A and B were used to assess the impact of cognitive dysfunction on performing daily tasks/activities in adult patients presented with MDD.Results:A total of 499 persons were included in this study, aged 18–66 years, current workers and managers. Of them, 17.8% were normal (remitted), 22.4% were mildly depressed, 23.4% were moderately depressed, 8.6% were severely depressed, and 27.7% were very severely depressed at the time of the study according to HDRS. Common symptoms attributable to depression were low mode or sadness (89.8%), followed by insomnia (75.2%) and crying (70.9%). Of them, low mode or sadness was the most common factor affecting the work performance (90.2%). About 66.3% of participants diagnosed with depression by a doctor/medical professional. Awareness of the disease was recognizable by patients’ managers in only 31.9% of the cases. Furthermore, 45.3% of cases had taken off work due to depression with mean duration of 38.7 (95% CI 37.7 to 39.7) days. The mean TMT parts A and B score were 69.2 (95% CI 66.3 to 72.2) and 126.6 (95% CI 121 to 132), respectively. Lastly, a significant positive correlation between the mean score for HDRS and TMT-A and B scores was observed.Conclusion:Depression affects work productivity and work environment with negative consequences to countries’ economy. Awareness of depression in the workplace in KSA and UAE is still suboptimal. The personal and societal burden of this issue cannot be neglected when we become aware of the proportion of affected people.

Patients infected with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) commonly suffer from the triad of depression, pain and fatigue. This symptom triad in HCV is likely influenced by additional psychological and interpersonal factors, although the relationship is not clearly understood. This retrospective study aimed to characterize the relationship between attachment style and depressive and physical symptoms in the HCV-infected population. Over 18 months, 99 consecutively referred HCV infected patients were assessed with the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS), Fatigue Severity Scale, Patient Health Questionnaire-15 for physical symptoms and the Relationship Questionnaire for attachment style. An ANOVA was used to identify differences between attachment styles and Pearson correlations were used to evaluate the association between depression, fatigue and physical symptoms. Approximately 15 % of patients in the sample had a fearful attachment style. Patients with fearful attachment style had significantly higher depressive symptoms compared to a secure attachment style (p = .025). No differences in physical and fatigue symptoms were observed between attachment styles. Further, HDRS scores were significantly associated with fatigue scores (p < .001) and physical symptoms (p < .001), reinforcing the relationship between these symptom domains in HCV-infected patients. Although depressive, physical and fatigue symptoms are inter-related in HCV-infected patients, our study results suggest that only depressive symptoms were influenced by the extremes of attachment style. Screening of relationship styles may identify at-risk HCV-infected individuals for depression who may have difficulty engaging in care and managing physical symptoms.