Overcoming Depression and Anxiety in COPD

Depression in people with COPD is reported to be far more common than in the general population. Even in the general population, 1 in 8 people will experience clinical depression more than once in their lifetimes. What is the exact cause of depression? Although the exact answer is still unknown and likely always due to multiple factors, experts assume that it functions like all other major chronic illnesses: Patients think they are incapable of normal functioning, and this gets them down.

Although the rate of depression is high in all chronic diseases, but incidence appears to be higher in people with COPD than in those with other major chronic conditions. Some scientists even claim that depression affects almost all people with COPD. So why should depression be more prevalent in COPD?

Smoking and COPD

Some chemicals normally found in tobacco can be a possible cause of depression. Smokers have a higher rate of depression than individuals in the general population.  We know that depressed adolescents are more likely to start smoking and continue smoking. Therefore, many depression-predisposed teens start smoking early, get hooked on nicotine and later develop COPD.

A study has shown that almost 85 percent of patients with emphysema had, on average, 10 full years of smoking before COPD was diagnosed!

Depression & breathing deficiency

So, the connection between depression and breathing deficiency commonly seen in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease is more or less an established fact. People tend to experience breathing difficulties for a long time before they consult a physician and are finally diagnosed with COPD. This could be the main problem because by the time people are diagnosed with COPD, they could have already lost as much as 50 percent of their lung function. Breathing is such a basic function that we grow to take for granted, until it stops working as we expect it to. It is no surprise that something as scary as not being able to breathe properly would contribute to depression.

Hypoxia- the key of the answer

What exactly breathing has to do with depression - where is the connection? It is well know that the brain normally consumes about 40% of the oxygen we breathe. So it's possible that compromised breathing over time creates a chronically diminished supply of oxygen, called "hypoxia". This could be the key of the answer, because in combination with other negative physical conditions such as lesions, infarctions, and injuries to the brain – they can easily contribute to the cognitive impairment and depression.
The conclusion is simple: compromised breathing may be one of the reasons that the incidence of depression is higher in COPD than in other chronic conditions. The good news is that special breathing techniques provide effective treatment for chronic depression. This could potentially be used as a tool or treatment technique for treatment of depression in the future.