Frequency of Depression in Burn Patients at a Tertiary Care Hospital

Background: Burns are physically, psychologically and economically challenging injuries and the factors leading to them are many and under studied. Different studies have associated burn injuries with psychiatric disorders from different parts of the world. Objective: To determine the frequency of depression among the burn patients. Methodology: This cross sectional study was conducted at the Pak Italian Modern Burn Unit, Nishtar Medical University, Multan and the Department of Psychiatry, Nishtar Medical University, Multan. Non probability consecutive sampling technique was used to collect the data from study subjects, which consisted of 150 patients of burn. All patients were assessed by a single psychiatrist on Hospital Anxiety and Depression scale (HADS) scale for screening of depression. Chi square test was applied to determine association between the socio demographic factors of burn patients and depression. Results; Of these 150 study cases, 91 (60.7 %) were male patients while 59 (39.3 %) were female patients. Mean age of our study cases was 33.94 ± 8.88 years. The frequency of depression was noted as 88 (58.7%). Post stratification Pearson chi square test revealed significant associations between age (p=0.001), residential status (p=0.038), occupation (p= 0.000), etiology of burn (p=0.044) and duration of illness (p=0.000) with depression. Conclusion: A high frequency of depression was noted among burn patients in our study. Depression was significantly associated with age, residential status, occupation, duration of illness and etiology of the burn. Healthcare professionals treating such patients should anticipate depressive symptoms in these patients and treat them accordingly.