STRESS, ANXIETY AND DEPRESSION IN PATIENTS WITH CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASES

Gordana Stankovska, Imran Memedi

Abstract

Psycho cardiology is a part of the integrative and holistic psychosomatic medicine. Specific psychiatric disorders, mostly anxiety and depression, apart from having an effect on the process of rehabilitation of patients with a CVD, are also a risk factor for their development. It is considered that CVD is a result of the interaction between various somatic, environmental and behavioral factors. To determine and compare the stress, anxiety and depression levels in patients with cardiovascular diseases and healthy subjects. The research involved 80 patients with cardiovascular disease and 80 healthy subjects (control group). All patients with a CVD were treated at the Clinical for Cardiologic Disease in Skopje. The subjects with a CVD and the subjects from the control group were similar in terms of gender and age. We determined the stress, depression, and anxiety levels in all subjects with the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale - DASS21. The results provide considerable pragmatic findings. Our results showed that patients with cardiovascular diseases experienced higher scores of stress, anxiety, and depression than healthy subjects. From the obtained correlation coefficients, we conclude that there is a statistically significant correlation between stress and CVD (.342), anxiety and CVD (.962), depression, and CVD (.189). At the same time, there was a positive correlation between the levels of stress and anxiety, stress and depression, and anxiety and depression in patients with CVD. The research did not identify differences in the context of stress, anxiety, and depression in healthy subjects. The obtained results show that a correlation exists between cardiovascular diseases and emotional changes that evolve in the person during the disease. Early recognition and treatment of emotional problems affect the quality of life of patients with CVD.

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