Imtiaz Ahmad Dogar, Naim Siddiqui, Asma Bajwa, Aysha Bhatti, Nighat Haider, Zahid Yaseen Hashmi.
Relationship between liver diseases and levels of anxiety and depression.
J Pak Psych Soc Jan ;6(2):61-4.

Objective: To assess the level of anxiety and depression in the patients suffering from various liver diseases and to determine the correlation, if any, between clinical and demographic factors and adverse psychological consequences. Design: Correlational study. Place and duration of study: The study was conducted in the District Headquarter Hospital, Faisalabad from September to November 2007. Subjects and Methods: 102 patients with liver diseases participated in this study through purposive convenient sampling technique. To take the measures of anxiety and depression HADS (hospital anxiety and depression scale) was used while demographic variables were recorded on a demographic sheet. The results were obtained by using Pearson correlation and analysis of variance (ANOVA). Results: Results showed a positive correlation 0.511 between the scores of anxiety and depression. It was also found out that most of the liver patients were experiencing anxiety (n=73, 71.6 %) and depression (n=72, 70.6 %). Negative correlation -0.335 was observed between years of education and depression while housewives were found to be more anxious than people doing jobs. Conclusion: In view of the high presence of psychiatric symptoms in liver diseases, doctors working in medical/liver units should be better equipped to assess and manage psychiatric symptoms that accompany medical diseases.

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