Saudi Journal of Medicine (SJM)
Volume-3 | Issue-10 | 571-582
Original Research Article
Depression, Anxiety and Stress among Bahraini Adults with Sickle Cell Anemia
Fatima Altaitoon, Heba Alsitry, Khatoon Saleh, Maryam Yateem, Sara Sarwani, Adel Alsayyad
Published : Oct. 30, 2018
Abstract
Sickle cell disease is a chronic, inherited disorder. Complications from SCD place patients at risk for poor psychosocial adaptation, including symptoms of depression anxiety and stress. To measure the prevalence of depression, anxiety and stress in adults with sickle cell anemia in the Kingdom of Bahrain, and to study the factors related to the development of depression, anxiety and stress in these patients, we did a cross-sectional study that involved administering Depression Anxiety Stress Scales (DASS-21). A total number of 343 patients above 18 years, with sickle cell disease were recruited by convenient sampling from Salmaniya medical complex, health centers and sickle cell disease society. Participants also completed a survey of demographic data with specific inquiries about common sickle cell anemia risk factors and complications. From 343 participants (199 males &144 females) 53.9% were depressed, 70.8% had anxiety and 51.6% were stressed. A significant association was seen for depression and female gender(p-value 0.041), lower educational level (p-value 0.005), unemployment (p-value 0.01), number of emergency visits (p-value 0.008), hospital admissions (p-value 0.005) and medications like anti-depressants (p-value <0.001). Similarly, anxiety was significantly associated with female gender (p-value 0.031), unemployment (p-value 0.017), hospital admissions (p-value 0.047) and medications (like MST, codalgin and anxiolytics). Stress, however, was not found to be associated with any of the socio-demographic factors but was significantly associated with number of emergency visits (p-value 0.001), hospital admissions (p-value 0.008) and medications (like MST, codalgin and anxiolytics). We found the prevalence of depression to be (53.9%), anxiety (70.8%) and stress (51.6 %) among the studied population. Screening of sickle cell anemia patients for depression, anxiety and stress symptoms is recommended at regular intervals