Depression and anxiety levels in infertile Turkish women

OBJECTIVE

To investigate the levels of anxiety-depression in women with infertility and to investigate the relationship between psychologic symptoms, course of treatment and cultural factors.

STUDY DESIGN

The study included 107 women with primary infertility in the index group and 63 healthy women in the control group. The Hospital Anxiety Depression Scale was applied to both groups to evaluate psychologic symptoms. The same scale was applied once more after 3 months to the infertility group.

RESULTS

There was no significant difference in the level of depression-anxiety between the 2 groups. The severity of psychologic symptoms was greater in those in the infertility group who had attempted nonmedical solutions, who were under pressure from their husbands' families because of their infertility and who reported "bad" relations with their husbands. At the end of the 3 months, the group of patients who achieved pregnancy showed significantly lower levels of anxiety and depression scores than the group of patients who did not. Age, attempts at nonmedical solutions, pressure from the husband's family because of infertility and anxiety level at the start of the study were variables that predicted pregnancy negatively.

CONCLUSION

It can be useful to take cultural factors into account in evaluating the mental health of infertile women.

Depression, anxiety, health-related quality of life, and disability in patients with overt and subclinical thyroid dysfunction

BACKGROUND

Thyroid dysfunction may impair the quality of life (QoL) and may cause psychological symptoms. The aim of this study is to investigate prospectively the effects of thyroid dysfunction on quality of life, levels of depression/anxiety and the changes in these variables after treatment.

METHODS

A total of 160 subjects, consisting of an overt hypothyroidism group (n = 33), a subclinical hypothyroidism group (n = 43), an overt hyperthyroidism group (n = 51), a subclinical hyperthyroidism group (n = 13), and a healthy control group (n = 20) were included in the study. All groups were evaluated with the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS), Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale (HARS), Short Form-36 (SF-36), and Brief Disability Questionnaire (BDQ). Health-related quality of life (HRQL) was measured by SF-36.

RESULTS

Anxiety and depressive symptoms were more severe in patients with overt hypo- and hyperthyroidism (p <0.001). The QoL was worse in overt or subclinical hyper- and hypothyroidism groups than in the control group [p = 0.013 for physical composite score (PCS); p = 0.002 for mental composite score (MCS)]. Psychological symptoms and QoL were improved in overt and subclinical hypothyroidism and overt hyperthyroidism groups as a result of the treatment. The overt hyper- and hypothyroidism groups showed more improvement than the subclinical groups.

CONCLUSIONS

This study suggests that restoration of euthyroidism is accompanied by improvement on QoL and psychological symptoms in all groups except the subclinical hyperthyroidism group. Controlled, randomized studies in larger groups are, however, necessary.