Functional disability among Behçet’s disease patients: its relation to disease activity, depression, and fatigue

Patients with Behçet’s disease (BD) who exhibit all of the physical and psychological symptoms and signs are likely to experience difficulties with daily living activities related to BD. The current study aimed to assess several factors that may be related to functional disability among BD patients studying these factors and targeting them to increase physical and mental activity as well as functional ability in the future.

Seventy-four BD patients were included in our study and they were 51 males and 23 females. BD patients had significantly higher Hospital Anxiety Depression Scale component for depression, and for anxiety, and Multidimensional Assessment of Fatigue scores than the healthy controls (P = 0.005, P < 0.001, and P < 0.001 respectively). A positive correlation was found significantly between the Modified Health Assessment Questionnaire and age (r = 0.2, P = 0.03), the duration of disease (r = 0.3, P = 0.01), disease activity (P = 0.008), and among patients with vascular (P = 0.02) and neurological affection (P = 0.002). Also, there was a highly significant positive correlation with anxiety, depression, and fatigue (P < 0.001).

In BD patients, realizing the relationships between increased disability and aging, female sex, long disease duration, vascular and neurological involvement, different indices of activity, fatigue, anxiety, and depression was detected. Disease activity is one of the most important factors causing disability that should be controlled. Screening for depression, anxiety, and fatigue plus proper treatment is highly valued in promoting patient’s coping with the disease.