Coping Patterns and Emotional Distress in Patients With Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease Who Are Undergoing Lung Transplant Evaluation.

OBJECTIVES: Living with severe lung disease like chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a very stressful situation. The way patients cope may impact their symptoms of anxiety and depression and physical function as well. We studied how ways of coping are associated with levels of emotional distress and lung function in patients with COPD being evaluated for lung transplantation. METHODS: Sixty-five (mean age 57 years, 46% females) patients completed the General Health Questionnaire-30 (GHQ-30) assessing emotional distress and the Ways of Coping Questionnaire. Measurements of lung function and 6-minute walk test were included. RESULTS: Seventeen (26%) patients had elevated emotional distress. Logistic regression of chronic GHQ score with gender, age, body mass index, lung function, and coping scales as covariates showed that escape avoidance and self-controlling coping and forced vital lung capacity were significantly associated with high emotional distress. Odds ratio of emotional distress increased with 5.2 per tertile (P = .011) in escape avoidance coping score. Moreover, we revealed that emotionally distressed patients cope with their current situation by refusing to believe the current situation and taking their distress out on other people. CONCLUSION: Among patients with COPD, a high level of emotional distress was uniquely associated with escape-avoidance coping and lung function. Future work should ascertain whether coping style predicts distress or whether distress increases the use of escape-avoidance coping. Nevertheless, our findings indicate that if either element is present, health care professionals should be attentive to the need for interventions to improve patients' well-being.

Psychiatric disorders and psychological distress in patients undergoing evaluation for lung transplantation: a national cohort study.

OBJECTIVE: We sought to investigate type and prevalence of psychiatric disorders and psychological distress in patients being evaluated for lung transplantation. METHODS: One hundred eighteen patients were assessed [74% with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)] with the MINI Neuropsychiatric Interview, the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ), and Hospital Anxiety Depression Scale (HADS). Spirometry and the 6-min walk test (6MWT) assessed lung function with data subject to multivariate regression analyses. RESULTS: Current and lifetime prevalence for mental disorders were 41.5% and 61.0% respectively, with anxiety (39.8% of patients), mood disorders (11.8%), and subsyndromal disorders (8.7%) identified. 15% of patients reported feelings of panic during the last week, 9% reported hopelessness, and 3% felt that life was not worth living. Statistically significant correlates were derived for HADS-depression with lung function (P=.0012) and 6MWT (P=.030) for the entire group (P=.012), and with lung function (P=.030) for COPD patients (P=.045), for whom higher chronic GHQ-scores correlated with poorer lung function (P=.009). In multivariate regression analysis, history of mental disorder was strongest predictor of current distress. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings underline the importance of assessing past, current, and sub-syndromal psychiatric disorders in addition to levels of distress in transplant candidates, with prospective studies needed to investigate impact on long-term outcome after transplantation.