Heart Failure Functional Class Associated with Depression Severity But Not Anxiety Severity.
BACKGROUND
Depression and anxiety are common in heart failure (HF) patients and associated with adverse clinical outcomes. However, there are little or no published data that focuses on the relationship between these commonly observed situations and HF classes. The aim of this study was to evaluate the relationship between these psychiatric co-morbidities and HF symptom classes. As a second objective of our study, the associations between patient characteristics and depression severity were also assessed.


METHODS
Our study enrolled a total of 420 HF study participants. The severity of depressive and anxiety symptoms was evaluated by Beck's depression and anxiety. The measured total scores were used to grade depression severity and anxiety as minimal/mild and moderate/severe.


RESULTS
According to NYHA Functional Classification, 228 patients (51%) had class I symptoms, 101 (23%) had class II symptoms, 31 (7%) had class III symptoms, and class IV symptoms were noted in the remaining 60 patients (19%). The mean Beck's depression and anxiety scores were 12.4 ± 11.1 and 13.4 ± 9.0, respectively. While no association between HF symptom classes and anxiety severity was observed, a significant positive relation between HF symptom class and depression score was found.


CONCLUSIONS
The results of our study suggested that HF symptom class was positively associated with severity of depression. On the other hand, there was no association between HF symptom class and anxiety score in a wide population of heart failure patients.


BACKGROUND
Anxiety; Depression; Heart failure.
Department of Cardiology, Yuksek Ihtisas Heart-Education and Research Hospital;
Etem
E
Celik
Department of Cardiology, Yuksek Ihtisas Heart-Education and Research Hospital;
Serkan
S
Cay
Department of Cardiology, Yuksek Ihtisas Heart-Education and Research Hospital;
Baris
B
Sensoy
Department of Cardiology, Ankara Education and Research Hospital, Ankara, Turkey.
Sani
S
Murat
Department of Cardiology, Yuksek Ihtisas Heart-Education and Research Hospital;
Fatih
F
Oksuz
Department of Cardiology, Yuksek Ihtisas Heart-Education and Research Hospital;
Tayyar
T
Cankurt
Department of Cardiology, Yuksek Ihtisas Heart-Education and Research Hospital;
Mehmet
M
Ali Mendi