Depression and Anxiety in patients with gynecologic disease

Abstract

Prevalence of psychological stress is considerably high in patients with gynecologic disease. Among various psychological symptoms, depression and anxiety are most common. Management of depression and anxiety is clinically very important, because they could appear various forms of clinical features during the disease progression and have influence on the whole process of treatment. We performed a cross-sectional study in our out-patient clinic by using Becks Depression Inventory and State-Trait Anxiety Inventory. According to this study, depression and anxiety were very prevalent in patients with benign gynecologic disease (11.8-14.1% and 5.0-10.0%, respectively), as well as in patients with gynecologic malignancies (19.3% and 6.1%, respectively), which were significantly more frequent than normal population. Moreover, some gynecologic symptoms such as pelvic pain were significantly related to the symptom development of depression and anxiety. In view of the interaction between somatic and psychological symptom, gynecologic disorders could provoke depression and anxiety, while psychological stress could aggravate the gynecologic somatic symptoms. Therefore, deep understanding of psychosomatic obstetrics and gynecology could help to relieve the psychological high burden of gynecologic patients, to improve the doctor-patients relationships, to facilitate the management process, and finally to elevate the quality of life of patients suffering from gynecologic diseases.