Predictors of depression in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients.

Evaluation of: Hanania NA, Mullerova H, Locantore NW et al. Determinants of depression in the ECLIPSE chronic obstructive pulmonary disease cohort. Am. J. Respir. Crit. Care Med. 183(5), 604-611 (2011). Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a disease related to smoking and to other inhaled noxious agents, which initially is confined to the respiratory apparatus and subsequently becomes systemic, due to development of comorbid conditions such as systemic inflammation and depression. The latter is more frequently detected in patients with COPD than in the general population and is targeted therapeutically with various interventions which are part of pulmonary rehabilitation programs. Hanania et al. analyzed the determinants of depression in a cohort of COPD patients and found that the strongest predictor was health-related quality of life. A similar analysis performed on the COPD disease subset with highest incidence of depression would probably offer more relevant information on this topic.