PREVALENCE AND ASSESSMENT OF STRESS AMONG PATIENTS WITH CHRONIC ILLNESSES
(Prevalence of anxiety and depression in patients with airway obstruction using the hospital anxiety and depression scale (HADS) in different localities of Saudi Arabia). Objective: Objective of this study is to determine the prevalence of anxiety and depression among patients with asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in different localities of Saudi Arabia. Method: This study included 420 subjects from three different places in KSA during the period between October 2015 and October 2016. All patients were instructed to answer the questionnaire of HADS. Result: The prevalence of anxiety and depression is elevated in the patients with both asthma (28%, 20%) and COPD (22%, 14%) in comparison to control group (16%, 4%) respectively. Conclusions: Anxiety and depression are more commonly encounter by the patients of asthma and COPD as compared to the normal population; this leads to bad outcomes of both diseases. Under-recognized and untreated co-morbid anxiety and depression in patients with chronic diseases have lethal consequences in the long-term. There are certain shreds of evidence that shows promising results regarding the rehabilitation of the respective disease, adopting a healthy lifestyle, and psychological and antidepressant drug therapy in reducing anxiety and depressive symptoms in patients. However, these results and findings required further elaboration to examine their efficacy in well-controlled randomized controlled trials with larger samples and long-term follow-up.