Sleep Quality, Depression and Anxiety in Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

Abstract

Objective: The purpose of this study was to examine the sleep disorders, anxiety and depression caused by CTS in patients, and whether electrodiagnostic study findings were associated with the severity of symptoms of sleep quality, anxiety and depression in patients. Materials and Methods: Using a case-control methodology, 87 electrophysiologically confirmed CTS patients with a mean age of 45±13 (27-62) years (86.9% women, n=73) and 50 controls with a mean age of 40±9.2 (21-56) years (54% women, n=27) were examined. Clinical neurological examinations of CTS patients and validated Turkish version of self-reported Sleep Quality Index, Beck Depression Scale and Beck Anxiety Scale were employed. Results: The majority of patients in the CTS group had worse symptoms of depression and anxiety, compared with the control group (p<0.05). The severity of CTS was not significantly associated with right and left hand utilization and the severity of symptoms of self-reported sleep quality, anxiety and depression scales. There were no statistically significant relationships between the electrodiagnostic findings and the patient functional status and symptom severity. Conclusion: Electrodiagnostic findings and patient CTS-related symptoms and sleep, anxiety and depression appear to be independent measures. Clinicians and researchers interested in CTS outcomes need to assess both. While depression and anxiety levels are found to be high in CTS, sleep-quality is relatively low. However, knowing that there is no correlation between the intensity of the illness and the number of symptoms with those variables, leads us to consider that the severity of the illness is evaluated on the self reports of patients. For this reason, physical impacts of the illness should also be evaluated as subjective.