COPD Patients More Likely To Be Depressed

Women and those with a history of stroke who have chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are at a higher risk for developing persistent depression, according to recent research.

The study is one of the first to analyze depression in COPD patients over a long period of time.
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To conduct their study, researchers followed 1580 COPD patients in the Evaluation of COPD Longitudinally to Identify Predictive Surrogate Endpoints (ECLIPSE) study for 3 years.

Researchers separated patients into 4 groups based on their Centre for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale score and whether they were taking antidepressants at baseline and at follow-up.

After a 3-year follow-up, researchers found that 55% of patients were never depressed, 24% were persistently depressed, 14% developed new onset of depression, and 7% experienced remission.

Women and those with a history of stroke had the highest risk of persistent depression. Those with worsening health status and moderate-to-severe dyspnea had a higher risk of new onset depression.

In addition, those with persistent or new onset depression had more COPD flare ups and had worse results on a 6-minute walking test.

“About 1 in 4 of COPD patients had persistent depressive symptoms over 3 years,” researchers concluded. “Clinicians should be aware of the characteristics of persistent and new onset depressive symptoms, which are associated with risk of exacerbations and loss of performance on the 6-minute walk.”

--Amanda Balbi

Reference:

Yohannes AM, Mülerová H, Hanania N, et al. Longterm course of depression trajectories in patients with COPD: A three year follow-up analysis of the evaluation of COPD longitudinally to identify predictive surrogate endpoints (ECLIPSE) cohort. Chest. January 2016. doi:10.1016/j.chest.2015.10.081