Analysis of depression state and the evaluation of mental intervention effect among patients with congestive heart failure

Objective To investigate the depression state of patients with congestive heart failure(CHF) and discuss the effect of mental intervention.Methods 257 new patients with CHF in hospital were involved in Zung's self-rating depression scale(SDS) questionnaire survey.The survey was undertaken on the first day or the second day during patients' hospitalization.133 of the 257 patients(51.8%) showed different degrees of depression state.Then the 133 patients were divided into 2 groups by sex,age,duration of underlying diseases and NYHA classification.The experimental group(67 cases) were treated with psychological intervention care and control group(66 cases) were treated with the routine care.After 7-10 d,questionnaire survey was undertaken again.Results SDS scores were different(P0.001) between patients of the different disease durations and NYHA classifications.SDS scores were lower in the experimental group than in the control group after the intervention(t=7.22,P0.001).There was no significant difference in degrees of depression between two groups before intervention(Z=1.05,P=0.296).The degree of improvement of clinical symptoms was higher in experiment group than in control group after the intervention(Z=6.08,P0.001).Conclusions Depression were particularly common symptoms in patients with heart failure.Pathogenesis and cardiac function were correlated to depression.Psychological intervention can relieve the depression symptoms and promote recovery of patients with CHF.