Patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), a chronic lung disease, have a significantly higher risk of depression than healthy individuals or patients with other common chronic conditions like diabetes. COPD, or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, is a progressive disease that makes it hard to breathe. COPD can cause coughing that produces large amounts of mucus, wheezing, shortness of breath, chest tightness, and other symptoms. Cigarette smoking is the leading cause of COPD. Researchers from Netherlands compared the risk for depression in 999 patients with COPD, 978 patients with diabetes and 2494 control subjects without chronic conditions. Hazard analysis was used to identify the risk of a first episode of depression in patients with COPD compared to the patients with diabetes and healthy controls. The data regarding the participant's age, socioeconomic status, other existing illnesses, gender and the general practice was also collected. It was found that the hazard ratio for the first episode of depression in the COPD group compared to the diabetes group and the healthy control group was higher. The researchers concluded that patients with COPD are more likely to have depression diagnosed than patients with diabetes or healthy people.
Chest
January 2009