Source: http://goo.gl/J3GKAe

Just when you think you have won the battle against heart disease, think again.

Adult survivors of congenital heart disease (CHD) of the outpatient department of the University of the Philippines – Philippine General Hospital (UP-PGH) suffer from symptoms of anxiety and depression.

In a study led by Dr. Jaime Alfonso Aherrera from the UP-PGH, the researchers surveyed 92 outpatients (with an average age of 33 years old) through the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale – Pilipino (HADS-P), a self-administered Filipino survey questionnaire used in detecting anxiety and depression. Results reveal that 61% of the group had shown signs of being anxious and depressed post-hospitalization, all of which were diagnosed with CHD. This is relatively higher than data recorded in foreign studies (34%) for the same group.

HADS-P survey results also show that the patient’s inability to secure jobs, hence, dependency to family members, was cited as a great factor contributing to the anxiety of what is deemed as the vulnerable population.

Mental illness is not a popular diagnosis in the Philippines, rarely acknowledged and most of the time, dismissed. However, medical researchers in the country are gradually discovering that medically-ill Filipinos are in high risk of emotional illness. In another study led by Dr. Sue Kimberly Tan (2015) of the UP-PGH, anxiety and depression were also apparent in patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, among others.

There still is no written policy on mental health screening for heart disease outpatients. Nonetheless, screening patients with CHD for possible psychiatric concerns should be given importance in order to promote holistic care, study says.

To access more information about the study, “Depression and Anxiety in Adults with Congenital Heart Disease Using the Validated Filipino Version of the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Score (HADS-P)”, you may visit http://goo.gl/n6WvjE.