Background- The under diagnosis and treatment of anxiety in COPD is common and can adversely affect patient outcomes including physical functioning, breathlessness, quality of life, exacerbation rates, use of health care resources; length of hospital stay; readmission rates and mortality. Patients with psychological difficulties may be less able to manage thier symptoms and less likely to be physically active or attend pulmonary rehabilitation.

Aims ? To identify if there was a correlation between symptoms of anxiety, FEV1 & age for patients recruited for a RCT of a nurse led CBT intervention (1).

Methods- A RCT was conducted to identify if CBT could improve symptoms of anxiety (1). In total 279 with symptoms of anxiety (>8 HADS-A) were recruited.  HADS-Anxiety scores, FEV1 and age was analysed at baseline using Pearson Product-Moment Correlation.

Results- There was no correlation between HADS-Anxiety score and FEV1 using Pearson Product-Moment Correlation (-0.009, p=0.89). Mean age was 66 (range 41-88). There was a negative correlation indicating that symptoms of anxiety decreases with age (anxiety -0.218, p=<0.001).

Conclusion ?In this study, there was no correlation between HADS-anxiety scores and FEV1.  Patients with COPD should be screened and treated for co-morbid symptoms of anxiety, regardless of FEV1. In this cohort, there is some observation of reduction of anxiety in older age.

References  1.       Heslop-Marshall K et al. RCT of CBT in COPD.  ERJ Open Research 2018.  4: 00094-2018; DOI: 10.1183/23120541.00094-2018.