Prevalence of anxiety and depression symptoms in a sample of outpatients with ATTR cardiac amyloidosis

Abstract

Patients with ATTR cardiac amyloidosis (ATTR-CA) face rare disease that could negatively influence psychological well-being with consequences on the course of the disease and quality of life. However, to date, no study analyzed the prevalence of anxiety and depression in patients with ATTR-CA and which clinical and sociodemographic characteristics are linked with these psychopathological conditions. A total of 109 consecutive patients (83% males) aged 62–90 years with ATTR-CA were recruited. In order to better understand the prevalence of anxiety and depression in ATTR-CA, a control group composed by 33 individuals equaling gender, education, and age were recruited. The level of anxiety and depression was measured using the Italian version of the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS). Sociodemographic and clinic characteristics were registered. Almost half of patients (49%) reported a clinical level of depression or anxiety, or both. ATTR-CA patients reported higher levels of anxiety and depression than control group. Results showed that older patients with ATTR-CA, especially females, with more advanced disease could be more at risk to develop an anxious disorder. Furthermore, being a woman, and presenting with a greater severity of symptoms, would appear to be a risk factor for developing a depressive disorder. Overall, these results highlighted the high presence of anxiety and depression in ATTR-CA patients, suggesting to physicians to pay attention to the psychological well-being of ATTR-CA patients. In fact, a psychological support for patients with high level of psychopathological disease could reduce disease burden and improve quality of life in ATTR-CA population.

Determinants of health status in older patients with transthyretin cardiac amyloidosis: a prospective cohort study

“…The local Ethics Committee approved the study (CEAVC; protocol number 19476_OSS/2021). The study protocol has been previously described: a part of the present prospective study cohort was previously included in another analysis aimed at evaluating the burden of social factors in patients diagnosed with ATTR-CA [ 6 ]. Participation was voluntary and, before starting data collection, written informed consent was recorded for all participants.…”

“…These tools, albeit informative, may not reflect the clinical complexity of older patients with ATTR-CA. For instance, recent data showed not only that depression and anxiety are extremely frequent among ATTR-CA patients, but also how they can influence the way in which patients perceive and report their cardiac symptoms [ 5 , 6 ]. Given the high prevalence of patients diagnosed at 80+ years [ 7 ], assessment of frailty (defined as a decline in functioning across multiple physiological systems and an increased vulnerability to stressors [ 8 ]) may prove useful within a more comprehensive evaluation to better describe individuals candidate to novel therapies and identify critical issues to improve healthcare: chronic conditions and frailty in the aging population are associated with reduced care effectiveness and impaired quality of life, which negatively affect long-term outcome [ 8 – 10 ].…”

Caregiver’s psychological well-being and quality of relationship with cardiac amyloidosis patients

“…Furthermore, amyloidosis is currently considered a rare disease meaning that the diagnosis process is still tortuous and long, the centers for diagnosis and management are few and are not always close to the patient's residence; this makes the management of this disease more complicated than other cardiac disease (Gertz & Dispenzieri, 2020) with a negative impact on patient's psychological (Smorti et al, 2023) and relational (Fumagalli et al, 2023) and physical well-being (Ponti et al, 2023).…”