title: Frequency of depression in patients with chronic heart failure.
abstract: Heart failure is a prevalent debilitating disease of poor prognosis in which heart cannot fill with or eject the sufficient amount of blood that is required due to structural or functional cardiac disorder. Depression is 4-5 times as common in heart failure (HF) patients as in the general population, and it might confer a higher risk of developing HF and negatively affect prognosis in established HF.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To determine the frequency of depression among patients presenting with chronic heart failure.
  
  
  METHODS
  This descriptive cross sectional study was conducted in cardiology department Hayat Abad Medical Complex Peshawar from November 2011 to April 2012. In this study a total of 121 patients were observed by using 13% proportion of depression in heart failure, 95% confidence level and 6% margin of error, under WHO software for sample size determination.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Mean age was 55 +/- 1.26 years. Sixty-eight percent patients were male and 32% were female. Fifteen percent patients had chronic heart failure for less than 1 year, 37% had chronic heart failure for 2-3 years and 48% patients had chronic heart failure for 3-4 years. Seventy percent patients had HADS score < 11 and 30% had HADS scored of > 11. Thirty percent patients had depression in chronic heart failure while 70% did not have depression in heart failure.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Depression is common among CHF patients. Severe depression is more frequent than mild depression.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiology, Hayatabad Medical Complex, Peshawar, Pakistan. shahsawar_pda@hotmail.com
authors.forename: Shahsawar
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Khan
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiology, Hayatabad Medical Complex, Peshawar, Pakistan.
authors.forename: Ajmal
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Khan
authors.affiliation: Khyber Teaching Hospital, Peshawar, Pakistan.
authors.forename: Rehmat
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Ghaffar
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiology, Hayatabad Medical Complex, Peshawar, Pakistan.
authors.forename: Zahid Aslam
authors.initials: ZA
authors.lastname: Awan
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003863:Depression / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006333:Heart Failure / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010154:Pakistan / Q000453:epidemiology