For a diabetes-related study, researchers explored how anxiety and depression played a role regarding mortality, re-amputation, and healing following a lower-limb amputation due to a diabetic foot ulcer (DFU).
A sample of 149 patients with a DFU who underwent a lower-limb amputation answered the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale and a socio-demographic and clinical questionnaire. The longitudinal multicenter study included four assessment moments that used Cox proportional hazards models adjusted for demographic and clinical variables.
Mortality rates, re-amputation, and healing ten months after the amputation were 9.4 percent, 27.5 percent, and 61.7 percent, respectively. Anxiety at baseline was negatively associated with healing. However, depression was not an independent predictor of mortality. None of the psychological factors was associated with re-amputation. The study highlighted a significant contribution of anxiety symptoms at pre-surgery to healing following a lower-limb amputation, the authors concluded.
The study “Anxiety and/or depression: which symptoms contribute to adverse clinical outcomes after amputation?” was published in the Journal of Mental health.
