Higher Levels of Depression and Anxiety in Patients with Chronic Urticaria

BACKGROUND Chronic urticaria (CU) is a common disease, characterized by the development of wheals, angioedema, or both. CU reduces quality of life and can also cause emotional distress. Studies addressing depression and anxiety in such patients are rare in the literature. The aim of this study was to determine the relationship between urticaria symptoms and depression and anxiety in patients with CU. MATERIAL AND METHODS The Hospital Anxiety-Depression Scale (HADS) was used to evaluate depression and anxiety in patients with CU. We included 50 patients with CU and a control group of 60 healthy volunteers. Urticaria activity score, medications, age, sex, comorbidities, occupation, and income of patients were recorded. Depression and anxiety scores were evaluated between the patient and the healthy groups. RESULTS The HADS questionnaire showed that 24 (48%) subjects in the patient group had depressive symptoms and 24 (48%) had anxiety, and both of these conditions were significantly more frequent than in controls (p=0.002 and p=0.001). The mean anxiety and depression scores ±SD were 10.82±4.29 and 7.74±4.49 in the patient group and 6.42±3.02 and 4.85±3.26, in the control group respectively (p=0.001). The mean score of the UAS ±SD was 23.14±13.40 and a significant positive correlation between UAS and the anxiety and depression scores was observed (r=0.400; p=0.004 and r=0.373; p=0.004, respectively). CONCLUSIONS Our data demonstrated that depression and anxiety symptoms are more common in patients with CU than in the control group. Therefore, we should pay attention to the potential of mental comorbidities while managing patients with CU.