In brief: Get help for those COPD blues
In brief
Get help for those COPD blues
Researchers at the Michael E. DeBakey Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Houston used hospital records to find 1,334 people who had been diagnosed with some type of breathing problem, including bronchitis, asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and several others. By asking just five questions over the phone, they preliminarily identified 80% (1,067) of the group as anxious, depressed, or both. Further testing showed that as brief as those interviews were, they were 80% accurate.
A study-within-the-study of 204 people with COPD found that about two-thirds were troubled by anxiety or depression, yet only about a third of them were getting help for these problems.
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