Management of Depression and Anxiety in HF

Summary

Heart failure (HF) is a complex clinical syndrome characterized by inability of the heart to pump an adequate amount of blood. Heart failure affects patients' ability to carry out even simple activities of daily living and therefore has negative psychological impact. Many studies reported that depression is prevalent among HF patients and it is being associated with high morbidity, mortality and costs. The European Society of Cardiology guidelines stresses the importance of routine depression screening with a validated questionnaire and initiating treatment for depression for all depressed HF patients and their access to psychological treatment.

The community heart failure nurses provide the integrated heart failure service in the local area of Southwark and Lambeth in South London. The aim of the integrated heart failure team in the community is to provide the HF treatment effectively, help patients understand and manage their symptoms and support with lifestyle changes. Even though, the community HF nurses have extensive role in managing HF patients in the community, their role in assessing anxiety and depression; and providing psychological treatment needs to be further explored.

Therefore, there is a need to assess the process by which community HF nurses assess and manage anxiety and depression. This current study builds on our recent systematic review which illustrated how cognitive behaviour therapy is effective at improving depressive symptoms in HF, but more studies are needed to build on these findings. The findings from this review will be used to examine the perspectives on assessing, managing and treating depression and anxiety in HF patients.

In this current study, an online focus group with community heart failure nurses and qualitative telephone/online interviews with community-based HF patients will be undertaken to explore their views and experiences in managing depression and anxiety; and to assess whether COMPASS a web-based intervention would be useful. Also, this study will explore the impact of COVID-19 on the psychological wellbeing of community-based HF patients.

Conditions

• Heart Failure
• Depression
• Anxiety

Interventions

OTHER

web-based COMPASS intervention

COMPASS is a web-based intervention (online CBT program) that was developed for managing illness-related anxiety and depression in patients with long-term conditions (LTC) (https://compass-ltc.org/). COMPASS is tailored to gain an understanding of the difficulties that LTC patients experience and provide information and tools on how to manage these. This qualitative study will explore participants' perspectives on using COMPASS for managing depression and anxiety in heart failure.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• King's College London

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Silapiya Smith · Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust

• Catherine Evans · Cicely Saunders Institute of Palliative Care, Rehabilitation and Policy, Faculty of Nursing, Midwifery and Palliative Care, King's College London,

Eligibility

Min Age

19 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2020-10-02

Primary Completion

2022-04-01

Completion

2022-04-01

Countries

• United Kingdom

Study Locations