Psychological Impact
COPD can lead to someone feeling more tired than they are used to and being less active. This can have a significant psychological impact on someone and can lead to them feeling anxious, depressed or stressed. It is important to encourage patients to talk to someone about how they feel such as friends and family, and to try and remain as active and social as possible as this will help.
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Many join local breathe easy groups (for further information see Impact on Patient page) or attend pulmonary rehabilitation as they feel that it helps to be around people experiencing the same thing.
Anxiety and Depression
Depression is around 2-3 times more common in people with a chronic physical health problem and occurs in around 20% of these people. All healthcare professionals should therefore look out for signs of anxiety and depression in COPD patients particularly those with severe dyspnoea, who are hypoxic or have been admitted to hospital with an exacerbation.
Anxiety can be caused by a number of things. Many patients are worried about a future living with COPD, while others have anxiety and panic-attacks due to becoming breathless and feeling that they are unable to breathe. This can lead to a cycle as panicking can make breathlessness worse. It has led to some people avoiding exertion to avoid becoming breathless, however, this can have a significant impact on their daily lives. For some identifying that they are experiencing anxiety can be enough to reassure them that their COPD is not worsening. All healthcare professionals can have a role here in helping them to identify and deal with their anxiety. Pulmonary rehabilitation can again play a major role as increasing their exercise tolerance means that they wont become breathless as quickly and so will reduce the number of episodes of anxiety they experience.