Evaluation of depression, anxiety level and quality of life in patients with chronic hepatitis b and inactive hepatitis B virus carriers

Objective: The objective of this study was to compare the anxiety, depression and quality of life scores of chronic hepatitis B (CHB) patients and inactive hepatitis B virus (HBV) carriers with healthy control subjects and to demonstrate the need for a multidisciplinary approach in the follow-up and treatment of patients with HBV infection. Methods: The study was carried out by comparing 200 subjects including 100 CHB patients and 100 inactive HBV carriers, who were admitted to the Outpatient Clinic of Infectious Diseases and Clinical Microbiology Department, Faculty of Medicine, Selcuk University between August 2013 and August 2014 with 100 healthy control subjects. All subjects were given Hospital Anxiety and Depression (HAD) Scale and Short Form-36 (SF-36) to assess their quality of life. Results: Based on the HAD Scale, anxiety risk among the carriers was higher than the control group (p=0.031). Depression risk in the patient (p=0.031) and carrier groups (p=0.046) were higher than the control group. There was no significant difference between the patient and carrier groups with regard to anxiety risk or depression risk (p>0.05). Females had higher anxiety risk in the patient (p=0.015), carrier (p=0.035) and control (p=0.001) groups. Depression risk was also higher in females in the patient (p=0.037) and carrier (p=0.038) groups. There were no significant relations between marital status, family type, place of living and anxiety and depression risks (p>0.05). Three quality of life parameters including general health, role limitations due to physical health and vitality scores in the inactive HBV carriers and CHB patients were lower than those of the control group (p<0.05). Conclusions: Psychological state of the patients who are chronically infected with HBV should not be neglected during treatment and follow-up. If a psychiatric disturbance is identified, effective treatment will increase quality of life and improve compliance to treatment.