SPIRITUAL WELL-BEING AND DEPRESSION IN HEART FAILURE

本子项目是利用由NIH/NCRR资助的中心赠款提供的资源的众多研究子项目之一。子项目和研究者（PI）可能已经从另一个NIH来源获得了主要资金，因此可以在其他CRISP条目中表示。列出的机构是中心的，不一定是研究者的机构。估计有500万美国人患有心力衰竭，每年有55万新病例被诊断出来。抑郁症是心力衰竭患者的一个重要问题。通过精神病诊断访谈，重度抑郁症的发病率在14-37%之间，抑郁症的症状甚至更为普遍。心力衰竭合并抑郁症患者的短期健康状况较差，功能状态下降，住院率和死亡率增加。精神和宗教可以防止抑郁和绝望。虽然人们对艾滋病和癌症患者的精神状态进行了研究，但还没有对心力衰竭患者进行系统的研究。这是一项研究，旨在测试评估老年心力衰竭患者精神健康状况的可行性，并确定较低水平的精神健康是否与抑郁症有关。研究的目的是：1)描述心力衰竭患者精神幸福感的性质和变化；2)确定抑郁程度以及抑郁程度与精神幸福感的关系；3)描述患者如何利用精神来应对疾病；4)确定心力衰竭的严重程度是否与精神健康或抑郁有关。

This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject and investigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source, and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed is for the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator. An estimated 5 million Americans suffer from heart failure, and 550,000 new cases are diagnosed each year. Depression is a significant problem in heart failure patients. Using diagnostic psychiatric interviews, rates of major depressive disorder range from 14-37% and symptoms of depression are even more common. Heart failure patients with depression have worse short term health status, declines in functional status, increased hospitalization and mortality. Spirituality and religion may protect against depression and despair. While spirituality has been studied in AIDS and cancer patients, it has not been systematically studied in heart failure patients. This is a study to test the feasibility of assessing spiritual well-being in a sample of elderly patients with advance heart failure and to determine if lower levels of spiritual well being are associated with depression. The investigators aim to 1) describe the nature and variation in spiritual well being in heart failure patients, 2) determine the extent of depression and the relationship of degree of depression with spiritual well being, 3) describe how patients use spirituality to cope with illness; 4) determine is severity of heart failure is associated with spiritual well being or depression.