Functional impairment in COPD patients - The impact of anxiety and depression

The authors examined the relationship between functional status and comorbi d anxiety and depression and the relationship between utilization of health care resources and psychopathology in elderly patients with chronic obstru ctive pulmonary disease (COPD). Elderly male veterans (N=43),with COPD comp leted anxiety, depression, and functional status measures. The authors cons tructed regression models to explore the contribution of COPD severity medi cal burden, depression, and anxiety to the dependent variables of functiona l impairment and health care utilization, Anxiety and depression contribute d significantly to the overall variance in functional status of COPD patien ts, over- and above medical burden and COPD severity as measured by the 8 s cales of the Medical Outcomes Study (MOS) 36-item Short Form Health Survey. Surprisingly, medical burden and COPD severity did not contribute signific antly to overall variance in functional status. Few patients were receiving any treatment for anxiety or depression.