Sigita Kilkutė, Neringa Marčiulynaitė
Abstract
Introduction: Spinal cord injury (SCI) typicallly leads to severe functional loss and disability. Stressful life events put people at higher risk for depression and anxiety. Functional independence level after the injury may be related to the level of depression and anxiety. Aim: to examine relation between functional and emotional status for persons with spinal cord injury during rehabilitation. Methods: The study was done in Vilnius University Hospital Santariškių Clinics, Rehabilitation, Physical and Sports Medicine Center in 2008 – 2011 year. The study included 25 people after spinal cord injury. The mean age was 39,40 ± 17,81. The patients were on comprehensive re habilitation course. Patients were evaluated according to Functional Independence Measurement test and Hospital Anxiety and Depression scale. Results: 40% of SCI patients started rehabilitation having clinically significant anxiety level (mean score – 10,00; SD ± 2,11) and 20% had clinically significant depression level (mean score – 10,20; SD ± 3,83). At the beginning of rehabilitation course the mean score of FIM was 63,52 (SD ± 21,85). During the rehabilitation the level of anxiety decreased, depression and independence level increased. At the end of rehabilitation 20% of SCI patients had clinically significant anxiety level (mean score – 9,4; SD ± 1,14) and 16% had clinically significant depression level (mean score – 11,25; SD ± 3,77). The mean score of FIM at the end of rehabilitation was 82,92 (SD ± 22,25). The changes are statistically significant (p ≤ 0,01). At the beginning of rehabilitation there were no statistically significant correlations between independence level (FIM) and anxiety (rho = -0,374; p > 0,05) or depression (rho = 0,167; p > 0,05) scores. At the end of rehabilitation there were found statistically significant correlations between independence level (FIM) and anxiety (rho = -0,407; p ≤ 0,01) or depression (rho = -0,464; p ≤ 0,01) scores. Conclusions: There was no relation between functional and emotio nal status for persons with spinal cord injury at the beginning of rehabilitation. The absence of depression and anxiety could be due to denial defence mechanism. Though at the end of rehabilitation the relation between functional and emotional status of patients with SCI was found.
doi:10.5200/sm-hs.2012.050
Keyword(s): spinal cord injury; functional indipendence;emotional status
DOI: 10.5200/291
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