Abstract:
Objectives: The study was planned to find out frequency of anxiety and depression in patients suffering from spinal cord injury (SCI) and comparing it with normal subjects, to ascertain whether anxiety and depression were more common in patients suffering SCI.
Study Design: A case control study.
Place and Duration of Study: The study was conducted at Psychiatry, Neurosurgery and Rehabilitation Departments of PNS Shifa Hospital Karachi from Jan 2009 to June 2009.
Patients and Methods: Purposive, Non probability type sampling was used to select the study group. Group 1 (n=80) comprised of patients who suffered SCI and Group 2 (n=80) comprised of healthy hospital staff and healthy relatives of patients as controls. Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale Urdu version was used for psychiatric evaluation. Data was analyzed by using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 10.
Results: In group 1, 30% suffered from anxiety and 42.5% suffered from depression as measured on Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale. In group 2, 6.3% had anxiety while depression was produced in 1.3%. Significant difference was found in the frequencies of anxiety & depression between both groups.
Conclusion: Both depression and anxiety are more common in patients with SCI as compared with normal people which raises the need for screening the patients suffering SCI with a valid tool such as HADS for better treatment out come and reducing the disability.
Keywords: Spinal Cord Injury, Depression, Anxiety.
