Levels of anxiety and depression among patients with spinal cord injury coming to paraplegic centre, Peshawar

Abstract

Introduction: Anxiety and depression are some of the known psychological conditions leading to an increased rate of morbidity and affects overall functional capabilities of an individual. In patients suffering from spinal cord injury, anxiety and depression are the commonest reported problems. This study was conducted to investigate the level of anxiety and depression among patients with spinal cord injury coming to Paraplegic Centre Peshawar.

Materials & Methods: The research design of this study was a cross sectional survey conducted from September 2018 to February 2019 at Paraplegic Centre, Peshawar. A total of 133 patients with spinal cord injury participated in this survey. Convenient sampling technique was used during data collection. Assessment of levels of anxiety and depression was done by Depression Anxiety and Stress Scale-21 (DASS-21). Responses from the patients were recorded and were analyzed on IBM SPSS 22.

Results: Out of the 133 participants, 100 (70.3%) were males and the rest 33 (29.7%) were females. The mean age of the patients was 30.34 ± 11.40 years (mean ± sd). The commonest level of spinal cord injury in these patients was thoracic spine. About 72.6% participants suffered from both anxiety and depression. Within the recruited patients, 9% suffered from depression only while 18.4% of the patients suffered specifically from anxiety. No association was found between the level of anxiety and depression with gender (p= 0.37), occupation (p=0.477), age (p = 0.54), marital status (p= 0.36), bread-earner (p=0.55) and length of hospital stay (p=0.40).

Conclusion: Majority of patients suffering from spinal cord injury develop anxiety and depression, with female gender being more prone to developing these conditions compared to their counterpart's males. Patients within age range 21 to 40 years are more prone to developing anxiety and depression.