RESEARCH ARTICLE
Quality of Life in Carotid Atherosclerosis: The Role of Co-morbid Mood Disorders
Maria Lecca1, Luca Saba2, Roberto Sanfilippo3, Elisa Pintus1, Michela Cadoni1, Federica Sancassiani1, Maria Francesca Moro1, Davide Craboledda3, Chiara Lo Giudice3, Roberto Montisci3, *
Article Information
Identifiers and Pagination:
Year: 2016Volume: 12
First Page: 1
Last Page: 8
Publisher ID: CPEMH-12-1
DOI: 10.2174/1745017901612010001
Article History:
Received Date: 7/5/2015Revision Received Date: 20/5/2015
Acceptance Date: 20/5/2015
Electronic publication date: 8/3/2016
Collection year: 2016

open-access license: This is an open access articles licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial 4.0 International Public License (CC BY-NC 4.0) (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/legalcode), which permits unrestricted, non-commercial use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided that the work is properly cited.
Abstract
Introduction/Objective:
To study in severe carotid atherosclerosis (CA): the frequency of mood disorders (MD); the impairment of quality of life (QoL); the role of co-morbid MD in such impairment.
Methods:
Case-control study. Cases: consecutive in-patients with CA (stenosis ≥ 50%). Controls: subjects with no diagnosis of CA randomized from a database of a community survey. Psychiatric diagnosis according to DSM-IV made by clinicians and semi-structured interview, QoL measured by the Short Form Health Survey (SF-12).
Results:
This is the first study on comorbidity on CA disease and MD in which psychiatric diagnoses are conducted by clinicians according to DSM-IV diagnostic criteria. Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) (17.4% vs 2.72%, P <0.0001) but not Bipolar Disorders (BD) (4.3% vs 0.5%, P = 0.99) was higher in cases (N=46) than in controls (N= 184). SF-12 scores in cases were lower than in controls (30.56±8.12 vs 36.81±6:40; p <0.001) with QoL comparable to serious chronic diseases of the central nervous system. The burden of a concomitant MDD or BD amplifies QoL impairment.
Conclusion:
Comorbid MD aggravates the impairment of QoL in CA. Unlike autoimmune diseases or degenerative diseases of the Central Nervous System, CA shows a strong risk of MDD than BD.