Anxiety and depressive disorders in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus

The article is devoted to the study of disorders of the emotional-volitional sphere, in particular, anxiety and depressive disorders, in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Affective disorders are one of the most common manifestations of SLE, which are associated with a number of other clinical factors and have a significant impact on the quality of life of patients.

Aim: to study the prevalence and characteristics of depressive and anxiety symptoms in SLE patients.

Object and research methods. The object of the research was emotional disorders, in particular, anxious and depressive manifestations of SLE patients. The emotional-volitional sphere was assessed using the hospital anxiety and depression scale (HADS), the Beck depression scale (BDI), and the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI). Data processing was carried out by methods of parametric and nonparametric statistics.

Results. An advanced examination of 64 patients was performed. All patients in the comparison group had a normal level of both anxiety and depression, while in the main group, 63.0% of the examined patients were diagnosed with clinically severe anxiety (>11 points according to HADS), and 57.4% had clinically severe depression. The average level of depression, as determined by the BDI, was 17.0 (9.0; 21.0) points in the patients of the main group, while in the comparison group it was 17.0 (9.0; 21.0) points (p<0.001). Between the study groups, statistically significant discrepancies were revealed in terms of both personal and situational anxiety with a predominance of indicators in the main study group: 20.0 (17.0; 24.0) points compared to 15.5 (14.0; 18, 0) points and 39.0 (28.0; 52.0) points compared to 25.0 (14.0; 29.0) points, respectively (p<0.01).

Conclusions. The prevalence of anxiety and depressive disorders is high in patients with SLE. Timely identification and treatment of these manifestations should be one of the priority areas of work for rheumatologists, neurologists and psychiatrists, since these disorders are associated with a number of other factors that also require the attention of doctors and significantly reduce the quality of life of patients.

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