Prevalence of Anxiety and Depression Among Patients with Chronic Hepatitis B Followed up in Clinical Bacteriology and Infectious Diseases Outpatient Clinics of Cukurova University Medical Faculty Balcali Hospital

Hepatit B is one of the most prevalent infectious diseases in the world at the present time. Its chronic nature leads to several important problems in daily life routine and affects the patients economically, physically and mentally. The aim of the present study was to determine the association between the levels of anxiety and depression and sociodemographic features and attitudes of the hepatitis B cases towards illness. For this purpose, 75 cases with chronic hepatitis B who were followed in Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases outpatient clinic were included in the study. All patients completed Beck depression inventory, state and trait anxiety inventory to objectively measure depression and state and trait anxiety levels. The present study has shown that state anxiety scores of female patients were significantly higher than male cases. Also patients treated with interferon had significantly higher depression scores than the ones without previous interferon therapy. Hepatitis B cases who had knowledge about disease course and prognosis were found to have significantly higher state anxiety scores than the cases without any knowledge. This study has confirmed the results of previous studies indicating the significant presence of psychopathology among hepatitis B cases