Rates of depression, anxiety in juvenile arthritis comparable to general population
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
Patients with juvenile idiopathic arthritis do not appear to have an increased risk for anxiety or depression, compared with the general population, according to data published in Pediatric Rheumatology.
“Studies have demonstrated that children with chronic diseases are more likely to develop psychiatric comorbidities than the general population,” Elisabet Berthold, MD, of the departments of clinical sciences and rheumatology at Lund University, in Sweden, and colleagues wrote. “In recent years, more attention is given to the possible effect of inflammation for the pathophysiology of mood-disorders and anxiety.”
To examine the connection between psychiatric comorbidities and juvenile idiopathic arthritis, Berthold and colleagues conducted an analysis of the south-Swedish JIA cohort, a population-based cohort of patients who received a validated diagnosis from 1980 to 2010. In addition to the 251 patients from the previously published south-Swedish JIA cohort, the researches expanded the group to further include 400 individuals living in Skåne and diagnosed with JIA from 1980 to 2001. Additional patients were also analyzed in accordance with the case collection process used for the published cohort.
Meanwhile, for each patient with JIA, the researchers included five comparators without JIA, matched based on sex, birth year and region of residence. Data for the analysis was attained from the Skåne Healthcare Register and featured all provider visits since 2004. Prior to 2004, only in- and outpatient visits were included. The researchers examined diagnostic codes for depressive disorder, recurring depression, dysthymia and anxiety. Codes were verified if received during an inpatient or outpatient visit.
In all, the analysis included 640 patients diagnosed with JIA and 3,200 matched individuals without JIA from the general population. Of those with JIA, 14.5% were diagnosed with depression and 17.3 were diagnosed with anxiety, according to the researchers. In the matched group, 17.3% individuals were diagnosed with depression and 17.4% were diagnosed with anxiety. For girls, the HR for depression was 1.1 (95% CI, 0.9-1.5), compared with 0.8 (95% CI, 0.5-1.4) for boys. Meanwhile, HR for anxiety was 1.2 (95% CI, 0.9-1.5) for girls and 0.6 (95% CI, 0.4-1.1) for boys.
“Individuals with juvenile arthritis do not appear to be diagnosed with depression or anxiety at an earlier age or more often than sex- and age-matched references,” Berthold and colleagues wrote. “We neither found any increased risk in subgroups with longer disease duration or more severe disease. Thus, we conclude that growing up with inflammatory arthritis does not appear to increase the risk of being diagnosed with depression or anxiety disorders later in life.”
Collapse
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts