Objective: Inpatients of 15 general hospitals were investigated in order to understand the incidence of depression and anxiety state and the patients'quality of life in the Department of Neurology.
Methods: We used Hospital Anxiety and Depression scale (HADS), 17-item Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HAMD), Hamilton Rating Scale for Anxiety (HAMA) and 36-item Short Form Health Survey (SF-36) as tools to evaluate inpatients' emotional state and health related quality of life within 48 hours after admitted and before discharge, respectively.
Results: 610 inpatients were finished admitted evaluation, patients showed clinical depressive symptoms and anxiety symptoms were 123 (20.2%) and 161 (26.4%) respectively, in which including 96 showed the both. 405 inpatients finished discharge evaluation, patients showed clinical depression symptoms and anxiety symptoms were 68 (16.8%) and 93 (23%) respectively, in which including 52 showed the both. Regression analysis indicated that health related quality of life was associated with gender, anxiety and depression state. Only 59 (20.8%) patients received drug treatment during they admitted. There were statistic significance decrease of the HAMA and HAMD total scores between treatment group and non-treatment group when discharged; Vitality, role of emotional and mental health were significantly increased at the time of discharge.
Conclusion: High rate of depression and anxiety state occurred in the department of Neurology. These abnormal emotions affected the quality of life of patients. If a physician treated somatic diseases only, the depressive and anxiety disturbances could not be remission. Thus, more attention should be paid to give adequate treatment if a patient concomitant presented the emotional disturbances in the general hospital.