Mental disorders in patients with muscoskeletal and cardiovascular diseases in comparison to the general population

Background: A significant part of patients with chronic diseases have comorbid mental disorders. However, by now it is nearly unexplored if and to what extend the prevalence rates of mental disorders in patients with chronic diseases differ from the rates of the general population. Objective: The present epidemiologic study investigates sex- and age-adjusted 4-week, 12-months, and lifetime prevalence rates of mental disorders in inpatients with musculoskeletal. and cardiovascular diseases compared to prevalence rates of the general population. Methods: In each sample (N = 4192), the data based on a two-stage epidemiologic design. The first stage entailed the use of a screening questionnaire for mental disorders (GHQ-12; M-CIDI-S). The second stage consisted of an interview (M-CIDI) of a randomised part of the sample. Results: The adjusted lifetime prevalence in both clinical samples (musculoskeletal: 59.3%, OR 1.6; cardiovaskular: 56.2%, OR 1.4) is high compared to the rate of the general population (47.9%). Affective disorders (22.5% to 34.9%) and anxiety disorders (18.4% to 33.8%) are the most common disorders. Conclusions: Compared to the general population there is a clear correlation between chronic diseases and mental disorders, that shows the importance of an improved diagnostic and treatment of patients suffering from comorbid mental disorders: