Study of Psychiatric Morbidity among Patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease in a Tertiary Health Care Institute

Introduction: Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is a lung disease characterized by chronic obstruction of lung airflow that interferes with normal breathing and is not fully reversible. COPD is a progressive airway disease associated with psychological distress Screening the psychiatric disorders in COPD patients will be helpful in better management of the disease by assuring compliance as well as will help to improve quality of life of these patients leading to overall improvement in patients’ health, by helping in starting early psychiatry management whenever necessary. Methods: A single-center, cross-sectional, observational study performed at a tertiary care hospital between august 2016 and June 2018 to study psychiatric morbidity among patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in a tertiary health care institute. A total of 68 clinically stable patients with COPD were screened for psychiatric morbidity by using Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview (MINI) version 6.0.0. The clinical diagnosis was confirmed using DSM-5 and by qualified psychiatrist of the Department of Psychiatry. Result: Generalized anxiety disorder, Major depressive disorder, major depressive disorder with Anxiety, Panic attack, Phobia and Substance Abuse Disorder was present in 8.8%, 13.2%, 5.9%, 7.4%, 1.5% and 7.4% of study population respectively. Conclusions: We found that patients with COPD had high prevalence of depressive and anxious symptoms. Therefore, screening and treatment of these psychiatric comorbidities in patients with COPD may lead to significant improvements in patients’ quality of life.