Assessment of Symptomatic Anxiety and Depression among Surgical Patients in Al- Zahrawi Teaching Hospital in Mosul City

Abstract

Background and aim: depression is a psychiatric illness characterized by a cluster of symptoms including prolonged depressed mood, lowered self-esteem, pessimistic thoughts, and loss of pleasure or interest in former activities for at least 2 weeks. Anxiety is an uncomfortable feeling of apprehension or dread that occurs in response to internal or external stimuli and can result in physical, emotional, cognitive, and behavioral symptoms. This study aimed to measure anxiety and depression among preoperative and post-operative patients. To signify hospitalized anxiety and depression among patients according to their gender.Materials and method: A descriptive design was carried out from 27th, October, 2012 through 29th, March, 2013 in order to achieve the objectives of the present study. The study subjects consisted of (200) patients were chosen from the wards of al- Zahrawi teaching hospital, (100) preoperative patients and (100) post-operative patients, these patients divided to (100) male and (100) female. In the present study Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) was used to diagnose patients with hospitalized Depression Anxiety.Results: the majority of the male patients had hospitalized preoperative depression, which constituted 26%, while 18% of them had hospitalized anxiety while the majority of female patients had hospitalized depression which constituted 48%, while 44% of them had hospitalized anxiety. The majority of the male patients had hospitalized post-operative depression, which constituted 40%, while 28% of them had hospitalized anxiety. The majority of the female patients had hospitalized post-operative anxiety which constituted 60%, while 52% of them had hospitalized depression.Conclusions: The study highlighted the female show symptoms of depression and anxiety more than men before surgery. The male show symptoms of depression more than symptoms of anxiety before surgery. The female show symptoms of anxiety more than symptoms of depression after surgery. The female show symptoms of depression more than male after surgery.Recommendations: The doctors should be providing the necessary advice to patients after surgery in terms of taking the necessary treatment and adequate care and support their psychological coping with the new situation after surgery. The study recommends good nurses transaction with patients in terms of providing crisis care to patients before the operation and give treatment and psychological support to patients to reduce the stress that occurs to have before the operation.Keywords: anxiety, depression, surgical patients.