Prevalence of Anxiety and Depression in Chronic Neurological Disorders Using the (HADS) in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

In this research, we screened for undiagnosed depression and anxiety in patients with chronic neurological diseases at the neurology outpatient clinic at King Abdulaziz University Hospital. A cross-sectional study was conducted Between January and July 2023. Using The Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) questionnaire. We excluded all patients with undiagnosed neurological disease and patients who have been previously diagnosed with anxiety and depression. In total 121 patients participated in our study. The mean age of the patients in the study was 33.58 (±SD 11.02. Most of which had no other comorbidities 95 (78.5%). The most common comorbidity found in 12 (9.9%) of the patients was Diabetes mellitus. Followed by Hypertension with 6 patients (3.9%). Epilepsy had the highest prevalence out of chronic neurological diseases with 50 patients (41.3%). Subsequently, multiple sclerosis had a high percentage of 42 (34.7%). The majority of patients had a normal depression score of 77 (63.6%). A significant number of patients had a borderline depression score (32 patients, 26.4%) and 12 patients (9.9%) had abnormal scores. Regarding anxiety scores, 59 patients (48.8%) had scores within the normal range, whereas 21 patients (17.4%) had a borderline score and 41 (33%) exhibited abnormal anxiety scores. Demonstrating a strong correlation between anxiety scores and chronic neurological diseases (P=0.033). According to our study, there is a significant relationship between anxiety and chronic neurological diseases, in contrast, no significant relationship between depression and chronic neurological diseases.