THE ROLE OF DEPRESSION, STRESS AND ANXIETY IN PATIENTS WITH SUDDEN SENSORINEURAL HEARING LOSS: CORRELATION WITH THE DASS-42 SCALE
1Aksaray Üniversitesi, KBB, Aksaray, Turkey2Yıldırım Beyazıt Üniversitesi, KBB, Ankara, Turkey Objective: Our aim is to understand the mood states of the patients suffering from sudden hearing loss in terms of anxiety, stress and depression. Its role in etiology and its effect on prognosis was also investigated.
Methods: The study included 100 patients (67 males, 33 females; mean age 46.5 years) who were diagnosed with sudden sensorineural hearing loss (SSHL). The DASS-42 questionnaire, which measures depression, anxiety, and stress, was filled out before the treatment of SSHL. Audiometric tests were performed to determine the pure tone average on days 1,3 and 7.
Results: There was no difference between males and females according to DASS-42 mean depression, anxiety and stress scores (p = 0.785, p = 0.832, p = 0.712, respectively). While there was no statistically significant difference between the presence and absence of tinnitus in terms of depression and stress scores, a statistically significant difference was observed in terms of mean anxiety scores (p = 0.817, p = 0.134, p = 0.032, respectively). There was no statistically significant difference in mean depression scores between the groups with and without recovery, while the mean scores of anxiety and stress were statistically significant (p = 0.427, p = 0.012, p = 0.036, respectively).
Conclusion: Anxiety and stress may be an etiologic factor and affect prognosis in SSHL.
Keywords : Depression, Anxiety, Stress, Sudden sensorineural hearing loss