Three patient representatives (Ralf Schmiedel, Pisana Ferrari, Hans-Dieter Kulla) contributed to the study and article. The first two are patients having undergone lung transplant, Mr Kulla is the President of ph e.v., German PH association. The other authors are Karen M. Olsson, Tanja Meltendorf, Manuel J Richter, Jan Fuge, Jan Christopher Kamp, Da-Hee Park, Henning Gall, Hossein A Ghofrani, Ivo Heitland, Nicole Lepsy, Madelaine-Rachel Dering, Marius M Hoeper, Kai G. Kahl.
This study included 217 patients with PAH from two German referral centers. QoL was assessed using the WHO Quality of Life questionnaire (short form). More than one third of the patients had psychological disorders with current or past adjustment disorder (38.2%), current major depressive disorder (23.0%), and panic disorder (15.2%) being the most prevalent mental illnesses. About half of the patients with a history of adjustment disorder developed at least one other mental illness. The presence of mental disorders had a profound impact on QoL.
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