Objectives: Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a chronic, progressive interstitial lung disease (ILD) of unknown cause that occurs primarily in older adults with a median survival time of 2.5±3.5 years. Since there is no curative treatment for IPF, and lung transplantation is the only effective treatment, patients with IPF may have symptoms of depression and anxiety more than other non IPF interstitial lung disease. Some studies have reported that symptoms of depression and anxiety are more common in patients with IPF. Despite the study of how anxiety and depression affect quality of life and disease in IPF patients, there is no comparison of anxiety depression with other interstitial lung disease and IPF. In this study, we investigated whether anxiety depression in IPF was more frequent than other ILDs and its effect on quality of life.
Methods: The study was designed as a prospective study. Patients were recruited for the present prospective study from among those in the ILDs outpatient clinic of tertiary teaching hospital with a high bed capacity between January 2016 and 2017. Patients with IPF and interstitial lung disease other than IPF who had completed the Hamilton Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) questionnaire were enrolled. Age, sex, smoking status, respiratory symptoms, comorbidities, pulmonary function tests, diffusing capacity of the lungs for carbon monoxide [TLCO], SF-36, and depression/anxiety levels, radiological findings, sedimentation, CRP level, blood gas analysis, complete blood count parameters were recorded. The Gender-Age-Physiology Index for IPF (GAP Index) was also calculated for each patient.
Results: The mean age of 50 IPF and 42 non-IPF interstitial lung patients were 67.4±7.1 and 64.9±7.2, respectively. Compared with the non-IPF group, SF-36 total, SF-36 physical function and SF-36 physical role severity were significantly lower in the IPF group, while the GAP score was significantly higher. There was no significant difference between the two groups in HAM-Anxiety and HAM-depression scores
Conclusion: This is the first study of anxiety and depression symptoms are also important in non IPF ILD like IPF. There were studies about the relation of anxiety depression and IPF, whereas patients with non-IPF ILD have similar anxiety depression with IPF patients in this study. This study led to the conclusion that anxiety depression should also be evaluated in nonIPF ILD patients.