Research conclusions: Fatigue in patients with PBC & PSC cannot be explained by depression

[Guest guest]

From the Journal of Hepatology, published online March 5, 2007: Depression in patients with primary biliary cirrhosis and primary sclerosing cholangitis van Os1, Walter W. van den Broek1, G.H. Mulder2, Pieter C.J. ter Borg3, Jan A. Bruijn1, Henk R. van Buuren3 Received 30 October 2006; received in revised form 31 December 2006; accepted 1 January 2007 published online 5 March 2007. Uncorrected

Proof Background/Aims Former studies reported a high prevalence of depression in patients with primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC) and primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC). These studies hypothesized that the presence of depression could explain the fatigue experienced by these patients. Methods Our aim was to study the prevalence of depression in a Dutch population with PBC and PSC. In addition, to investigate the effects of using an additional diagnostic structured psychiatric interview, after screening with the Beck

Depression Inventory (BDI), a self-report severity scale instrument used in former studies. Patients with PBC and PSC (n=92) completed the BDI. Patients with scores of 10 or higher (n=39) were interviewed using a structured psychiatric interview. Patients with scores lower than 10 were at random (30/53, 57%) also interviewed using a structured psychiatric interview. Results Of the 92 patients that were included 42% had depressive symptoms according to the BDI. However, of these patients only 3.7% had a depressive syndrome according to the DSM-IV criteria as assessed with the structured psychiatric interview. Conclusions The prevalence of a depressive disorder in patients with PBC and PSC is not higher than in the general population. Fatigue in patients with PBC and PSC cannot be explained by depression. Keywords: Beck depression inventory (BDI), Depressive disorder, Cytokines, Interleukin, Sickness syndrome, Fatigue 1 Department of Psychiatry, Erasmus Medical Centre, P.O. Box 2040, 3000 CA Rotterdam, The Netherlands 2 Department of Epidemiology & Biostatistics, Erasmus Medical Centre, P.O. Box 2040, 3000 CA Rotterdam, The Netherlands 3 Department of Gastroenterology, Erasmus Medical Centre, P.O. Box 2040, 3000 CA Rotterdam, The Netherlands Corresponding author. Tel.: +31 10 4639222; fax: +31 10 4633217. The authors who have taken part in this study declared that they have not a relationship with the manufacturers of the drugs involved either in the past or present and did not receive funding from the manufacturers to carry out their research. They did not receive funding from any source to carry out this study. PII: S0168-8278(07)00117-1 doi:10.1016/j.jhep.2007.01.036 (wife of Chaim, PSC 2002, cholecystectomy 2006)

Finding fabulous fares is fun.Let Yahoo! FareChase search your favorite travel sites to find flight and hotel bargains.