BACKGROUND: One under-explored area in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients is anxiety and/or depression, which may have negative impact in the patients' condition. This is possibly the first study to possibly assess the burden of anxiety and depression in COPD patients in the Philippines.

STUDY DESIGN: This is a prospective descriptive survey in three tertiary care hospitals in Manila, Philippines.

PARTICIPANTS: A total of 204 patients were enrolled in the study with the following inclusion criteria: Filipino patients who are aged more than or equal to 40 years with a diagnosis of COPD (documented post-bronchodilator FEV1/FVC ratio less than 0.7) by a physician seen at the outpatient clinics of three tertiary care hospitals with no primary diagnosis of asthma, no previous lung volume reduction surgery, lung transplantation or pneumonectomy and at least finished Grade 2 education.

Exclusion criteria include pregnant patients and patients previously diagnosed to have an anxiety, depression, or on any anti-depressant medications.

METHODS: Descriptive statistics was obtained with frequency and percentages of the demographic and physiologic variables in the study by tabulation and graph. The prevalence of anxiety and depression was determined by calculating the percentage of each patient with a score of 8 or higher on the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) with validated Tagalog version, respectively.

RESULTS: The prevalence of anxiety in Filipino COPD patients is 47.55%. The prevalence of depression in Filipino COPD patients is 31.37%.

CONCLUSION: The prevalence of depression in Filipino COPD patients is comparable to the prevalence of depression from other general medical conditions nationwide according to the study of Batar (31.37% vs. 31%). Anxiety is slightly more prevalent in COPD from other general medical conditions (47.55% vs. 36%). A study on the risk factors of anxiety and depression among Filipino COPD patients is recommended.