title: Mental health and sleep in permanent atrial fibrillation patients from the general population.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Anxiety and depression has been found in atrial fibrillation (AF) patients referred to secondary care. Little is known about the level of such distress in AF patients from the general population.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  Permanent AF patients from the general population might have more anxiety, depression, and sleep impairment than subjects in sinus rhythm.
  
  
  METHODS
  Patients with permanent AF and controls in sinus rhythm were recruited from a 75-year-old cohort from 2 Norwegian municipalities. The main outcome variables were anxiety and depression, measured by the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) and sleep quality measured by Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) score. Short Form 36 (SF-36) was also completed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Twenty-seven patients with permanent AF and 71 subjects in sinus rhythm participated. No significant score differences were found between AF patients and controls for HADS anxiety (median, inter quartile range, 3 [1, 5] vs 4 [1, 6]; HADS depression, 3 [1,6] vs 2 [1,4]; and PSQI 6 [3, 11] vs 5 [4, 8]). AF patients had significantly poorer scores for SF-36 physical functioning, physical role, general health, vitality, and social functioning compared to subjects in sinus rhythm.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Elderly permanent AF patients from the general population had similar levels of anxiety, depression, and sleep quality, despite poorer physical health-related quality of life compared to controls in sinus rhythm. Copyright © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. This work was supported by unrestricted grants from the governmental Health Region South-East, Norway, and from the Stein Erik Hagen Foundation for Clinical Heart Research, Norway. The authors have no other funding, financial relationships, or conflicts of interest to disclose.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiology, Oslo University Hospital Ullevål, Oslo, Norway. inger.ariansen@oslouniversitetssykehus.no
authors.forename: Inger
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Ariansen
authors.forename: Toril
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Dammen
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Abdelnoor
authors.forename: Arnljot
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Tveit
authors.forename: Knut
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Gjesdal
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D001007:Anxiety / Q000473:pathology*; D001281:Atrial Fibrillation / Q000209:etiology / Q000473:pathology* / Q000523:psychology; D015331:Cohort Studies; D003863:Depression / Q000473:pathology*; D020920:Dyssomnias; D005260:Female; D006305:Health Status Indicators; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008603:Mental Health; D009664:Norway; D011594:Psychometrics; D011788:Quality of Life; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012647:Self-Assessment; D012890:Sleep; D012893:Sleep Wake Disorders / Q000209:etiology / Q000473:pathology* / Q000523:psychology; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013997:Time Factors