BACKGROUND AND AIM: Mental disorders are common in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients. In this study; anxiety/depression and affecting factors in COPD patients were examined.

METHODS: COPD patients who applied to Akdeniz University Chest Diseases clinic between November 2019 and March 2020 were included in the study. The diagnosis and staging were assessed according to the Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease 2020 (GOLD-2020). The data were collected via face-to-face interviews using the patient description form. In addition, COPD assessment test (CAT), modified-medical research council (m-MRC), and hospital anxiety and depression (HAD) scale were applied to the patients. Anxiety/depression status was assessed using HAD scale. We evaluated the relationship between HAD scores and questionnaire and clinical findings. The data were analyzed in SPSS 22.0 program. x2, ANOVA, Kruskal-Wallis, Student’s t-test, and Mann–Whitney-U test were used. Correlation and linear regression analysis were used.

RESULTS: The majority of the 151 patients were male (84.8%), mean age was 66.1±9.5 years, and 27% were active smokers. Most of the patients had comorbidity (76.8%) and 4.6% of the patients reported that they had a psychiatric illness. The HAD-anxiety score was 4.70±4.03, and the HAD-depression score was 4.98±3.50. Depression and anxiety rates were 21.6% and 8.6%, respectively. The prevalence of anxiety and/or depression was found to be 23.7%. Multivariate analysis showed that the presence of comorbidity, severe COPD, and the number of complaints are the effective factors for both anxiety and depression. CAT and m-MRC scores were significantly correlated with HAD scores.

CONCLUSIONS: Anxiety/depression was found five times more than that reported. Severe COPD, more complaints, and comorbidity were risk factors for anxiety/depression.