Background: Awareness of having an unruptured intracranial aneurysm can affect quality of life and provoke feelings of anxiety and depression, even in treated patients, because of fear of recurrence of aneurysms.

Objective: We assessed quality of life and feelings of anxiety and depression in patients with an unruptured aneurysm with or without aneurysm occlusion.

Methods: We sent postal questionnaires (MOS Short Form-36, EuroQol EQ-5D, Hospital Anxiety and Depression scale) to 229 patients with an unruptured aneurysm and no prior history of subarachnoid haemorrhage identified from our database. Group mean scores and corresponding 95% confidence intervals (95%CI) were compared between the “no intervention” group and the “intervention” group and with reference population using Students t-test and Chi-square test.

Results: 173 (76%) questionnaires were returned. There were no statistically significant differences in the quality of life, anxiety or depression level between patients with or without aneurysm occlusion. Patients in the no intervention group compared to the reference population had a significantly reduced quality of life on the domains physical function (-10.7;95%CI:-16.2[left right arrow]-5.1), role physical (-15.8;95%CI:-25.5[left right arrow]-6.0), role emotional (-9.9;95%CI:-18.7[left right arrow]-1.1), vitality (-7.2;95%CI:-12.1[left right arrow]-2.4) and general health (-11.6;95%CI:-16.2 [left right arrow]-6.9). Results were comparable in the intervention group, except for the domain role emotional, which was not statistically significantly reduced.

Conclusion: Patients with an unruptured aneurysm have a reduced quality of life compared with the reference population, mainly on physical domains, but without an apparent effect on mood or anxiety. The extent of reduction in quality of life is similar in patients with and those without aneurysm occlusion.

From: Quality of Life, Anxiety and Depression in Patients with an Unruptured Intracranial Aneurysm with or without Aneurysm Occlusion by Buijs et al

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