A STUDY TO ESTABLISH THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN DEPRESSION AND OSTEOARTHRITIS ACCORDING TO THE SEVERITY OF PAIN AND LOSS OF FUNCTION

Objective: To establish a relationship between depression and osteoarthritis according to the severity of pain and loss of function. Study Design: Cross-sectional study. Place and Duration of study: Orthopedic and Rheumatology department of Combined Military Hospital, Lahore from October 2022 to March 2023 Patients and Methods: All the patients reporting to the outpatient department of either gender aged more than 45 years with a diagnosis of OA based on X-ray findings and a consultant review were included in our study. Severity of OA was studied using the WOMAC (Western Ontario and McMaster Universities) Osteoarthritis Index. Depression was measured using the Personal Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) scale in these patients simultaneously. (12) It was translated in Urdu for the ease of our participants. Results: Out of the 196 participants of our study, 71 (36.2%) were males while 125 (63.8%) were females. Mean age of the participants of our study was 55.49 Years + 8.98. Mean WOMAC index score was 61.02 + 19.11. 3 (1.5%) patients of OA had mild disease in our study and no depression was found in them. In the moderate disease group, 34 (17.3%) had no symptoms of depression, 62 (31.6%) had minimal depression, none had mild, moderate or severe depression while only 1 (0.5%) had moderately severe depression. Out of 96 (48.9%) of the OA patients with severe disease as per the WOMAC index, 3 (1.5%) had minimal depression, 47 (23.9%) had mild depression, 15 (7.6%) had moderate depression, 27 (13.8%) had moderately severe depression and 4 (2.0%) had severe depression. Conclusion: OA is a debilitating disease. Quality of life of patients is severely affected as the duration increases due to pain, stiffness and loss of function of joints. Long term disease leads to depression of variable degrees. . Thus early diagnosis and timely intervention in such patients with an individualized management plan can improve the outcome and quality of life of patients. Keywords: Osteoarthritis, Depression, Morbidity