Assessment of depression and anxiety in patients with chronic liver disease Procena depresije i anksioznosti kod bolesnika sa hroničnim bolestima jetre

Background/Aim. In recent years mental health of patients including those with chronic liver disease (CLD), has become interesting because its disturbance leads to reduced quality of life, that is associated with worsening of clinical outcome, re- duced compliance and increased mortality. The aim of the study was to determinate the frequency and severity of depres- sion and frequency of anxiety in patients with CLD and to as- sess the contribution of selected socio-demographic, clinical and laboratory risk factors for depression and anxiety. Meth- ods. In this cross-sectional study, we used the Hamilton de- pression rating scale (HDRS) and Hamilton anxiety rating scale (HARS) in patients with CLD. Results. The study included 54 male and 43 female patients. Depression was present in 62.9%, and anxiety in 13.4% of the patients. A higher HDRS was noted in the patients older than 50 years (p = 0.022) and un- employed patients (p = 0.043). The patients with at least one episode of gastrointestinal bleeding had a significantly higher frequency of anxiety than those without bleeding (p = 0.018). A higher HARS score was present in the women (p = 0.011), un- employed patients (p = 0.008) and those with non-alcoholic liver disease (p = 0.007). There was a significant correlation be- tween the mean corpuscular volume (MCV) and the value of the HDRS score, and between serum potassium and sodium levels and HDRS score. Conclusion. Age and the mean cor- puscular volume have significant influence on the HDRS score while unemployment, gastrointestinal bleeding, serum potas- sium and serum sodium have predictive value for HARS score.