Depression in Patients with Pulmonary Tuberculosis

Abstract

ABSTRACT Introduction: Pulmonary Tuberculosis (PTB) is a chronic infectious disease caused by mycobacterium tuberculosis. PTB remains a global health problem with an enormous burden of disease. It is a preventable disease and the associated mortality is reduced in recent few decades but it still remains one of the top ten causes of death globally. It has enormous psychological and social effects on affected individuals.  A lot of patients develop depression during illness, which can be managed better with timely intervention. In this study, we want to find out the frequency of depression among PTB patients in our population. The present study was conducted to determine the frequency of depression in pulmonary tuberculosis patients. Methodology: This descriptive, cross-sectional study conducted atPulmonology Department of a tertiary care teaching hospitalin Pakistan from January 2020 till July 2020. Patients of both genders and age between 20-80 years having PTB with duration of 5 months or more were enrolled for study. Each patient underwent history, clinical examination and sputum microscopy, Gene Xpert and mycobacterial culture for the diagnosis of PTB. Depression was diagnosed using Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS).All the above mentioned information along with age, gender and address was recorded on a proforma. Data was entered into SPSS version 24 for analysis.Depression was stratified among age and gender. Post stratification chi square test wasused at 5% level significance. Results: Out of total 225 patients 35% were in age range 20-40 years, 46% in age range 41-60 years and19%in age range 51-80 years. Mean age of the participants was 41 (± 14.49) years.  There were 155 (69%) male patients, while 70 (31%) were female. Mean weight was 63 (± 11.45) Kg. Depression was diagnosed in 19% (n = 43) of patients, while 81% (n = 182)  had no depression. Conclusion:The frequency of depression was 19% in patients presenting withpulmonary tuberculosis. Proper assessment of these patients is required for timelydiagnosis and management of depression in order to reduce the problems of these TBpatients. KEY WORDS: Depression, Mycobacterium tuberculosis; Pulmonary tuberculosis