Anxiety and depression in adult patients with familial Mediterranean fever: a study comparing patients living in Germany and Turkey

Abstract

Anxiety, but not depression is more common among FMF patients living in Germany compared to healthy controls. No significant difference could be found between FMF patients living in Germany or Turkey concerning the prevalence of anxiety or depression.

Familial Mediterranean fever: Health-related quality of life and associated variables in a national cohort

“…1,2,9 In previous studies, a higher frequency of anxiety and depression in FMF patients has been reported. 3,5,8 In accordance with these results, we also detected a higher frequency of anxiety and depression using the subscales of HADS. In correlation analysis, we also showed a positive correlation between the FMF-QoL Scale score and HADS scores.…”

“…4 Besides, the issue of QoL has different perspectives including pain, fatigue, mood disorders such as anxiety and depression, and sleep quality that cause difficulty in evaluating their impacts on FMF patients. 5,6 Patient-reported outcome measures have been used for the assessment of QoL in patients with chronic disabling diseases. 7 These measurements help physicians and health policymakers to determine psychosocial problems in patients with chronic diseases and to perform a standardized assessment of these problems.…”

“…1,8 For that purpose, some scales or indices have been used including Short Form-36 (SF-36), Hospital Anxiety Depression Scale (HADS), the World Health Organization Quality of Life Scale Short Form (WHOQOL-BREF), the Health Assessment Questionnaire (HAQ), and the Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy (FACIT)-Fatigue Scale for the measurement of QoL in rheumatological diseases and FMF patients. 1,5,[8][9][10][11] In addition, Familial Mediterranean Fever Quality of Life (FMF-QoL) Scale as a new, valid, and reliable scale has been also proposed. 12 However, there is no consensus on the use and application of these scales or indices due to difficulties such as lack of quantitative measures and application in a busy clinical setting.…”

Incidence of sleep disturbances in patients with familial Mediterranean fever and the relation of sleep quality with disease activity

“…found that FMF patients were more likely to be depressed than healthy peers and defined disease to be a significant factor affecting health‐related QoL. In a comparative study by Giese et al ., a higher incidence of anxiety but not depression was documented in FMF patients living in Germany than those in Turkey. The evidence from these studies inspired us to investigate the incidence of sleep disorders in adult FMF patients and its effect on disease activity.…”

Sonographic Assessment of Spleen Size in Turkish Migrants With Familial Mediterranean Fever in Germany

“…Studies comparing the course of FMF in regions where it is endemic and where it has low prevalence have shown conflicting results as to whether regional variations are associated with differences in disease severity. [16][17][18][19][20][21] Splenomegaly is not a finding specific to FMF but may be associated with a wide variety of diseases, including viral or bacterial infections, hematologic diseases, portal hypertension, storage diseases, amyloidosis, and acromegaly. The normal spleen weight is known to range between 150 and 180 g. 22 The normal dimensions of the spleen (thickness × width × length) are commonly assumed to be 7 × 4 × 11 cm, although a spleen width of 5 cm or less is also considered physiologic.…”