Correlation of depression and coping style in chronic functional constipation patients

Abstract

Objective To study the correlation of depression and coping style in chronic functional constipation patients.Methods Totals of 115 patients with chronic functional constipation were investigated by Self-Rating Depression Scale (SDS) and the Coping Inventory.Results Results showed that 58％ of the respondents were in the different degree of depression,and the SDS score of patients were significantly higher than that of Chinese norm (t ＝4.37,P ＜0.01).Patients with chronic functional constipation mostly took the negative coping styles such as fantasy,self-blame,and avoidance,while patients took positive coping style such as problem solving,help seeking and others were rarely.The copying styles of depression group and nordepression group had significant differences (P ＜ 0.01).Depression was negatively correlated with problem solving,help factor (r ＝-0.676,-0.579; P ＜ 0.01),while it was positively correlated with remorse,rationalization factor (r ＝ 0.863,0.338 ;P ＜ 0.01).Conclusions Chronic functional constipation patients have varying degrees of depression,which is correlated with coping style.The nurse should give psychological support basing on individual differences to alleviate their negative emotions,improve therapeutic effect and reduce the incidence of adverse events. Key words: Depression; Chronic functional constipation; Coping style