Depression symptoms take place recurrently in patients suffering from COPD. This study aims to assess the effects of antidepressant therapy in patients with COPD and a depressive disorder in relation to COPD levels. The study population consisted of N = 87 patients diagnosed with COPD, according to the GOLD criteria, and a depressive disorder. All of the patients were subjected to clinical and psychiatric exploration according to psychiatric assessment instruments, which was followed by SSRI therapy for the duration of 8 weeks. The main methods used were descriptive statistics and analysis of variance. The results showed a different distribution of depressive symptoms at a different stage of COPD by FEV1 (χ2 = 30.47, df = 6, p < 0.01) and by mMRC (χ2 = 34.6, df = 6, p < 0.01). After the application of SSRIs, there was a significant improvement in HDRS scores in all stages of COPD by FEV1 (χ2 = 251.62, df = 9, p < 0.01) and by mMRC (χ2 = 919.17, df = 9, p < 0.01). This study contributes to the improvement in the quality of life of patients by the targeted application of SSRI therapy and, therefore, more precise and better overall treatment results.
Keywords: Hamilton scale; Serbia; chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; depression.