Depressive and Anxiety Symptoms Screening in Cardiac Inpatients: A Virtuous Italian Approach to Psychocardiology

Alessandra Gorini, Mattia Giuliani, Luca Raggio, Simone Barbieri and Elena Tremoli
Additional contact information
Alessandra Gorini: Department of Oncology and Hemato-Oncology, University of Milan, Via Festa del Perdono, 7, 20122 Milan, Italy
Mattia Giuliani: IRCCS Centro Cardiologico Monzino, Via Carlo Parea, 4, 20138 Milan, Italy
Luca Raggio: Applied Research Division for Cognitive and Psychological Science, European Institute of Oncology IRCCS, 20141 Milan, Italy
Simone Barbieri: IRCCS Centro Cardiologico Monzino, Via Carlo Parea, 4, 20138 Milan, Italy
Elena Tremoli: IRCCS Centro Cardiologico Monzino, Via Carlo Parea, 4, 20138 Milan, Italy

IJERPH, 2020, vol. 17, issue 14, 1-9

Abstract: Despite the fact that American Heart Association (AHA) recommended a systematic screening for depression in cardiovascular inpatients, poor attention has been given to this issue. Furthermore, no specific guidelines exist for anxiety screening in cardiovascular inpatients. Thus, the aims of this study were to verify the feasibility of a depressive and anxiety symptoms screening protocol in an Italian hospital specializing in cardiovascular diseases and to evaluate both anxiety and depressive symptoms prevalence. A group of 2009 consecutive inpatients completed the 9-item Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) and the 7-item Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD-7). The rates of depressive and anxiety symptoms were almost 9% and 16% respectively. Men were less likely than women to experience both depressive and anxiety symptoms. Patients who were admitted to the heart failure unit reported higher risk of experiencing both symptoms compared to patients in other wards. Similarly, patients admitted to the cardiac surgery unit showed a higher risk of experiencing anxiety symptoms compared to other patients. The proposed screening procedure showed a good feasibility and acceptance. This study highlighted the importance of implementing a short screening procedure in hospitals dealing with cardiovascular inpatients to identify those individuals who require specific attention and interventions.

Keywords: cardiovascular diseases (CVD); depressive symptoms; anxiety symptoms; health psychology; screening; PHQ-9; GAD-7 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/14/5007/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/14/5007/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:14:p:5007-:d:383450

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().