Abstract
Objectives: To identify the effects of a pulmonary rehabilitation program (PR) for COPD patients by assessing the levels of anxiety(A) and depression(D) in such patients. Methods: A prospective study of consecutive COPD patients who underwent an PR program in the last year. Inclusion criteria: stable symptomatic COPD despite optimal treatment. Programme type: 36 sessions: 10 min warm up + resistance exercise bike and force + respiratory physiotherapy. Assessment of A and D levels before and after PR by self-administered questionnaire HADS(Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale). Results: n: 35. Characteristics of patients are described in Table 1.
General patient characteristics included in the PR. Variables expressed in percentages (qualitative) or as an average ± and standard deviation (quantitative).
The mean scores of A and D at the beginning of the PR are within the normal range(5.8 A/D 4.9), although 14.3% of patients had a high probability of A and 8.6% of D. There were no significant differences in mean scores for A and D after performing a PR(A 5,86±4,16 vs 5,56±3,81,p 0,51; D 4,91±4,35 vs 4,35±2,95,p 0.34). Conclusions:The prevalence of A and D in our series of patients specific to PR was significantly lower than for COPD generally described in the literature, although the patients assessed were moderate and multipathological.The PR tends to decrease A levels and especially D,although this is not significant.
- © 2013 ERS
