Comparison of depression and anxiety in patients with MS, diabetes, rheumatism, and renal failure

Chronic disease is one of the most common problems in today's society, which incurs heavy treatment costs and has negative effects on a person's performance, and psychological issues are one of the most important factors in chronic exacerbation and continuation. This study was conducted with the aim of comparing depression and anxiety in patients with MS, diabetes, rheumatism, and renal failure. The method of this research was post-event and causal comparative. From the community of 568 chronic patients (MS, diabetes, rheumatism and chronic renal failure) referring to the treatment centers of Khorram Abad city (MS patient’s association, diabetes center, rheumatology specialized center and Shahadai Ashair hospital) using sample method. 120 patients were selected (each group of patients with MS, diabetes, rheumatism, and chronic renal failure included 30 people). The implementation method was as follows, after coordinating with the officials of the medical centers and the patients, the depression and anxiety questionnaire (Lavibond and Bavibond, 1995) was implemented on the patients. For the analysis, the non-parametric Kruskal-Wallis and Yeoman-Whitney methods were used to analyze the findings using SPSS version 21 software. The values obtained for the Z statistic related to the comparison of depression of diabetic patients with other patients are significant. Also, the difference between renal failure and MS patients in depression is significant (p≤0.005). Thus, the depression status of patients with rheumatism and renal failure is higher than other patients, then MS and diabetes patients are in the next ranks. The comparison of anxiety also shows that patients with renal failure, rheumatism, MS and diabetes have the highest anxiety respectively. In addition to medical interventions, it is suggested to pay attention to mental health and reduce depression and anxiety of chronic patients with psychological interventions and life skills training.