Depression and anxiety may be cause or effect of attacks in hereditary angioedema

Introduction: The study aims to determine the depression and anxiety levels of patients with hereditary angioedema using the Beck depression inventory(BDI), Beck anxiety inventory (BAI) and to compare the results with the patients' demographic characteristics, the number of attacks, attack types, and healthy controls.Methods: 60 hereditary angioedema patients and 60 healthy controls were included in the study. The demographic characteristics of the patients, the total number of attacks/months before treatment, the number of attacks according to the localization of the attacks, and the number of attacks/month after treatment were filled in retrospectively from their hospital records. BDI and BAI were used for anxiety and depression levels.Results: Median BAI (11 vs 5; p=0.001) and BDI (11 vs 7; p=0.024) in HAE patients, the ratio of patients with moderate anxiety (21.7% vs 1.7%; p=0.001) and the ratio of patients with severe anxiety (8.3% vs. 0%; p=0.001) were compared to the control group, was high. There was no statistically significant difference between the number of attacks under treatment and the BAI and BDI scores. A positive correlation was found between the number of untreated attacks and the number of attacks under treatment and the BAI score (r=0.759; p=0.001) and BDI score (r=0.599; p=0.001).Conclusions: Due to the high prevalence of depression and anxiety in HAE patients, health care providers should be attentive of this comorbidity and refer patients to mental health specialists, when needed.Keywords: Hereditary Angioedema, Beck Depression Inventory, Beck Anxiety Inventory