title: Mortality in relation to self-reported mixed anxiety and depression symptoms--The HUNT study.
abstract: Excess mortality in anxiety and depression has mostly been studied for diagnostic categories of each condition separately. The aim of this article is to study the association between self-reported mixed anxiety and depression and mortality in the general population. A population survey of 2624 individuals was defined in three groups according to their total score on Hospital Anxiety and Depression rating Scale (HADS-T): 0-19 points, 19-24 points and 25 points or above; 114 deaths (4.3%) occurred during 4.5 years. Only the highest score group had increased mortality risk after adjustment for all relevant confounding factors (P=0.043). However, trend tests supported a dose-response relationship between increasing HADS-T score and increasing total mortality across the three groups (P for trend = 0.02). All seven suicides occurred in cases detected by HADS-T (>or=19 points) at baseline. Our sample is limited and the findings therefore tentative, yet there seems to a positive correlation between HADS-T symptom level and total mortality risk in a 4.5-year perspective.
authors: HUNT Research Centre, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway. ottar.bjerkeset@ntnu.no
authors: Ottar
authors: O
authors: Bjerkeset
authors: Arnstein
authors: A
authors: Mykletun
authors: Alv A
authors: AA
authors: Dahl
authors: Olav
authors: O
authors: Linaker
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001008:Anxiety Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000401:mortality* / Q000523:psychology; D003710:Demography; D003863:Depression / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000401:mortality* / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011594:Psychometrics; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D013001:Somatoform Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires