Presence of anxious and depressive symptomatology in outpatients with neurological pathology

There is little information available describing psychiatric symptoms in non-psychiatric patients, with 25% of the patients being reported with such symptoms. These are most commonly observed with neurological disorders given the severity and degree of disability that they cause. The objective of this research was to identify the factors associated with the presence of anxiety and/or depression symptoms in patients with a neurological disorder. A transversal, descriptive study was carried out, taking 209 outpatients from the neurology service, with the aim of obtaining a period prevalence of the presence of anxiety and depression symptoms using the extended version of the Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (K10), and a sociodemographic interview to determine the association with factors that might influence on the presence and severity of such symptoms. All the participants signed an informed consent. We found scores superior to 21 points on the K10 scale (highly suggestive of the presence of an anxiety and/or depressive disorder) on 63.2% of the patients. These scores were more frequently found on patients with cerebrovascular diseases (85.7%), maintaining themselves above the 60% of the rest of the disorders. These results suggest a bigger association for more than half of the neurology outpatients to suffer from an anxiety and/or depressive symptoms severe enough to have benefits from an integral approach, with a bigger association in relation with more severe or incapacitating disorders, also the association was bigger on women. Thus, we need further research to determine the components of this association and identify effective interventions aiming to improve not just the patients' health, but also their quality of life.