Keywords
How to Cite
Abstract
Objectives: To determine the prevalence and severity of depression, assess quality of life, and examine the relationship between depression and quality of life among patients with Bell's Palsy.
Method: A cross-sectional study was conducted using non-probability convenience sampling to recruit 139 patients with Bell's Palsy from tertiary care hospitals in Peshawar. The Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) and WHO Quality of Life-BREF (WHOQOL-BREF) instruments were administered to assess depression severity and quality of life across physical, psychological, social, and environmental domains. Data were analysed using SPSS version 22, employing descriptive statistics, chi-square tests, and Fisher’s Exact Test with Monte Carlo simulation, with significance set at p < 0.05.
Results: Out of the respondents, 93.5 percent had clinically significant depressive symptoms with only 6.5 percent indicating minimal or none. The quality of life was significantly affected in all the domains with the lowest scores recorded in the environmental domain. The chi-square and Fisher Exact tests showed that the degree of depression was statistically significant with the general quality of life, especially with the social relationships part (p < 0.001) showing that social functioning was worse with greater levels of depression. There were no significant differences in severity of depression and gender (p = 0.115), past Bell's Palsy episodes (p = 0.978), or length of illness (p = 0.749), although clinical trends indicated that, in this case, depression was most likely to increase within the range of 1–3 months.
Conclusion: Depression is very common in patients with Palsy, and it is linked to poor quality of life particularly in social functioning. The results to this end demonstrate the necessity of combined psychological evaluation and treatment in the treatment of Bell's Palsy, especially of those with moderate-severe depressive symptoms.