Anxiety and Depression in Inflammatory Rheumatic Diseases

Abstract

Objective: To compare the degree of anxiety and depression in patients suffering from rheumatoid arthritis (RA), systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and systemic sclerosis (SSc), also to determine the relationship between the duration of diseases and the symptoms of anxiety and depression. Methods: We included 106 RA, 62 SLE and 28 SSc patients. Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) and Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) were used to assess anxiety and depression. Cutoff point was 14 for BAI, and 10 for BDI. According to the results of the questionnaire, respondents were categorized in: no, mild, moderate, and severe anxiety / depression group. Psychologists participated in analysis of the surveys. Results: 49.5% of patients were anxious, and 52.0% were depressive. The highest median of BDI was found in SSc patients (11.5 for SSc, 10 for RA, 6.5 for SLE). Median values of BAI were approximately the same in all three diseases (14 for RA, 12.5 for SLE, 13 for SSc). Average disease durations were similar in RA (13.24 years) and SLE (12.78 years), and shorter in SSc (10.29 years) patients. The most common symptom of depression was fatigue. Conclusion: The anxiety was similar in all studied diseases. The degree of depression was the highest in SSc patients, who also had the shortest disease duration average. The relationship between disease duration and the appearance of anxiety and depression was not significant. Depression in SSc may occur due to the pathophysiology of disease, or due to the worst prognosis compared with SLE and RA.