Me. Lucarotti et al., PSYCHOLOGICAL MORBIDITY ASSOCIATED WITH ABDOMINAL AORTIC-ANEURYSM SCREENING, European journal of vascular and endovascular surgery, 14(6), 1997, pp. 499-501
Objectives: To identify whether abdominal aortic aneurysm screening ca
uses anxiety in those screened and whether the diagnosis of an aneurys
m produces sustained anxiety in subjects in comparison with those in w
hom no abnormality is detected. Design: Prospective case controlled st
udy. Materials and Methods: The 28-item General Health Questionnaire (
GHQ) was used to assess psychological morbidity in 161 men attending f
ar routine aneurysm screening in the Gloucestershire Aneurysm Screenin
g programme. One hundred men had a normal aorta and 61 were identified
as having aneurysms. The GHQ was administered just before screening a
nd I month later. An anxiety linear analogue scale was also used. Resu
lts: There was no difference in anxiety levels between those men with
normal aortas and those with aneurysms either before or after screenin
g. There was a statistically significant reduction in both these group
s I month after screening. Conclusion: This study shows that although
the invitation to aneurysm screening may cause some mild anxiety, this
is not prolonged men wizen an asymptomatic aneurysm is diagnosed.