Objective: The reduction in the level of mental health, particularly depression is associated with outcome of treatment in patients with osteoarthritis (OA). There is no broader research into mental health or mental health care for OA patients. The purpose of the present study was to determine mental health and its relationship with some clinical and demographic factors among patients with OA.
Material and methods: 94 patients with osteoarthritis were included in presented study. Patients were referred to hospital during the year of 2016, 30 male patients (31.9%) and 64 female (68.1%), female/male ratio was about 2 : 1. All patients were evaluated in the term of mental health through demographic questionnaire and SCL-90R questionnaire and the obtained data were analyzed using version 22 of SPSS Software.
Results: The results showed that 58.5% of patients with osteoarthritis had mental health disorders. Among all studied patients mental health disorders were found in 55 patients (58.5%), including both isolated and complex disorders such as: psychological discomfort in the form of somatic symptoms disorder (n = 45), obsessive compulsive disorders (n = 43), interpersonal sensitivity (n = 44), depression (n = 47), anxiety (n = 41), aggression (n = 52), phobia (n = 42), paranoid psychosis (n = 32), psychosis (n = 3). In addition, the prevalence of mental health problems in patients with OA was significantly higher at the age range of 18 to 20 years old (p = 0.002). Also revealed that the greater risk of mental health disorders is in the first months of diagnosis of OA compare to the patients with longer disease duration more than six months (p = 0.01) and patients taking corticosteroids were significantly higher risk of mental health disorders development (p = 0.00).
Conclusion: In presented study although the prevalence of OA is higher in group of older people, but psychiatric disorders is more common in OA patients with age range below 20 years. In addition, patients in the early months of OA are at greater risk of psychiatric disorders which the disorders were observed higher in patients taking corticosteroids.