Depressive Disorder in Patients with Degenerative Connective Tissue Diseases

Objective: To look for presence of depression in patients managed with various connective tissue disease at medicine/ rheumatology department of our hospital. Study Design: Comparative cross-sectional study. Place and Duration of Study: Department of Medicine and Rheumatology, Pak Emirates Military Hospital, Rawalpindi Pakistan, from Aug 2021 to May 2022. Methodology: All the patients who were diagnosed with any degenerative connective tissue disorder by consultant medical specialist or rheumatologist were included in the study. Depressive symptoms were assessed by using the Beck Depression inventory. Factors like age, gender, presence of chronic pain and duration of illness were associated with presence of significant depression among the study participants. Results: Out of 425 patients who were managed for connective tissue diseases in our hospital during the study period, 102(24.0%) were male while 323(76.0%) were female. Mean age of the study participants was 34.95±7.626 years. 283(66.5%) did not have significant depressive symptoms while 182(33.5%) had significant depressive symptoms. Longer duration of connective tissue disease and presence of significant chronic pain had statistically significant relationship with presence of depressive symptoms in our study participants (p-value<0.001). Conclusion: Significant depressive symptoms were observed in considerable number of patients suffering from connective tissue diseases. Patients with longer duration of illness and those with significant chronic pain were more at risk of having depressive symptoms as compared to others.