The Analysis of Anxiety, Depression, and Type D Personality in Patients with Tinnitus / 대한이비인후과학회지

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Tinnitus is a disease with high prevalence and a wide range of etiologies. Tinnitus has a lot of impact on the patients, causing psychological distress such as anxiety and depression. Type D personality is related to the negative emotions including to anxiety and depression. Therefore, the goal of this study was to understand the relationship between tinnitus and anxiety/depression/type D personality. SUBJECTS AND METHOD: Ninety three patients with chronic subjective tinnitus, who visited the Department of Otorhinolaryngology-Head Neck Surgery in Yeungnam University Hospital from May, 2012 to October, 2012. The tinnitus patients were asked to complete a survey regarding demographic data, otologic history, Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), Hamilton anxiety scale (HAM-A), type D personality scale 14 (DS-14), and tinnitus handicap inventory (THI). RESULTS: The tinnitus patients had significantly higher levels of type D personality (58.1%). In the tinnitus patients, as the score of THI increased, the BDI and HAM-A scores increased. As the DS-14 score increased, the THI scores increased. CONCLUSION: These results suggest that the tinnitus patients have high prevalence of type D personality compared to that shown in the general population. And the handicap of tinnitus is related to anxiety, depression and type D personality.