Research of related factors of depression in COPD patients

We aimed to investigate the related risk factors of depression in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) to detect depressed patients early and perform timely intervention to improve the disease prognosis of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. This cross-sectional study included COPD patients who were discharged from the First People's Hospital of Hefei, China from October 2018 to October 2019, and all participants were diagnosed with COPD according to the Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease. There was no COPD exacerbation during follow-up 1 month after discharge. Psycho-cognitive disorders, psychiatric disorders or other conditions causing psychiatric symptoms were excluded. We divided stable patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease into depression group (HAM-D 24 ≥ 8) and non-depression group (<8), and compared the sociodemographic data, clinical characteristics and serum inflammatory parameters between the 2 groups. In this cross-sectional study, 100 eligible COPD patients were initially recruited, 64 of whom completed all the programs. Univariate logistic regression analysis, female, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease assessment test (CAT) score, serum interferon alpha-a (IFN-α) level, and low smoking index were associated with depression in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that high serum IFN-α level (OR = 1.099, 95% CI: 1.010-1.196; P = .028), high CAT score (OR = 1.250, 95% CI: 1.052-1.484; P = .011) and low smoking index (OR = 10.154, 95% CI: 1.886-54.664; P = .007) were significant risk factors for depression in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Our findings suggest that high serum IFN-α levels, and high CAT scores are risk factors for comorbid depression in COPD patients. Continuous high-dose smoking may aggravate the primary disease and ultimately aggravate depression.