Clinical characteristics of patients with depression misdiagnosed as coronary heart disease
LIU Chun-ping
LUO Li
LI Jun-xia
NIU Li-li
TIAN Xin-li
Abstract：Objective To analyze the clinical characteristics of patients with depression misdiagnosed as coronary heart disease (CHD), and improve the recognition ability and emphasis in physicians of cardiologic department. Methods The patients (n=143) with depression misdiagnosed as CHD were chosen from the outpatient service of psycho-cardiology of the Department of Cardiology of General Hospital of PLA Beijing Military Area Command from Nov. 2006 to Apr. 2013. All patients were given mental inquiry, depression scale scoring, anti-depression treatment and follow-up. The clinical characteristics of the patients were summed up and analyzed. Results In 143 patients, main clinical symptoms were chest congestion or chest and back pain, but the positions, duration time and relief time of these symptoms were not fixed. All patients had general multiple symptoms or discomfort, and there were 136 (95.1%) with somnipathy, and 118 (82.5%) with normal ECG when disease onset. The symptoms of chest congestion or chest and back pain were not relieved by anti-CHD drugs. According to the Beck depression scoring questionnaire, there were 57 cases (39.9%) with mild depression, 81 (56.7%) with moderate depression, and 5 (3.5%) with severe depression. After anti-depression treatment for 8 w, the body symptoms were significantly relived and depression scores decreased significantly (19.6±9.87 vs. 10.87±8.34, P=0.001). Conclusion Depression can manifest the similar symptoms as CHD, so it is often misdiagnosed as CHD. It is necessary for cardiologic physicians to master some psychological knowledge.
Keywords：Coronary heart diseaseMisdiagnosisDepression
Publication Date：2014-01-01
Pages：3( 175-177 )