Burden of illness: A systematic review of depression in chronic rhinosinusitis

Depression has been reported in patients with chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS), but its prevalence varies across studies, and uncertainty remains regarding the association with baseline disease severity and treatment outcomes.

To systematically assess the prevalence of depression in CRS and to review its relationship to baseline disease severity and outcomes after treatment.

A systematic review of the prevalence of possible depression was performed by using the available methods to diagnose depression, and the results were pooled. Studies that examined the relationship of depression on baseline disease severity and treatment outcomes were organized and reported individually.

Thirteen studies met inclusion criteria for prevalence analysis. The prevalence of possible or likely depression in patients with CRS ranged from 11.0 to 40.0%, depending on the method of diagnosis and sensitivity of various depression instruments. Positive depression screening was consistently associated with worse CRS-specific quality of life (QOL), medication usage, and health care utilization, but there were no reliable CRS-specific factors to predict the presence of depression. Patients with possible depression who underwent medical or surgical treatment for CRS tended to have improvements in CRS-specific QOL but did not achieve the same degree of QOL as patients who were not depressed. Depression-specific QOL seemed to improve after treatment for CRS.

Positive depression screening was common in patients with CRS and had a negative association on the entire spectrum of QOL, health care utilization, and productivity. CRS-specific treatments were still beneficial in patients who seemed to be depressed and improved both depression-specific and CRS-specific QOL.