Changes in health-related quality of life in depressive women with somatic diseases during a three year period of outpatient treatment

Special Issue “Health in context” : 24th Annual Conference of the European Health Psychology Society, Cluj-Napoca, Romania, 1st-4th September 2010 / Guest Editors: Paul Norman and Adriana BabanAim: to disclose the influence of somatic diseases (SD) on health related quality of life (HRQoL) changes during the treatment of Major Depression in 3 years follow – up study. Method: 31 women ill with Major Depression and 33 women ill with Major Depression and somatic diseases were investigated by the questionnaire WHOQol-100 three times during the three years treatment in outpatient department of Kaunas city. Results: Patients with complicated depression (PCD) had significantly ( p50.05) higher QoL indicators of pain, dependence on medical help and negative feelings, also their perception of mobility, physical functioning and level of autonomy were worse at initial screening. Substantially less improvement of physical functioning and autonomy domains of QoL were observed within PCD group after two years. And even after three years of medical treatment of depression and somatic diseases the tendencies of QoL evaluation were the same as we found during initial screening: women having depression and somatic diseases were worse at physical functioning and showed less autonomy. Conclusion: The presence of somatic diseases significantly worsens the QoL of depressive women at the initial screening stage and induces less positive change of QoL through 3 years of observationPsichologijos katedraSocialinių mokslų fakultetasVytauto Didžiojo universiteta