[Psychologic screening of patients of a cardiologic acute care clinic with the German version of the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale].

A German version of the HAD-scale which had originally been developed by Zigmond and Snaith for assessing psychological morbidity in medical patients was tested in 136 medical students, 18 psychiatric and 531 cardiologic patients. Its validity, reliability and acceptance were found to be satisfactory, its integration into medical routine did not raise any problems. Among 203 patients with suspected coronary heart disease (137 men, 66 women; mean age 54 +/- 10 years) the sub-group with high (vs. normal) HAD anxiety scores showed a significantly higher number of negative exercise tests (p less than .05) and coronary angiograms (p = .01; n = 60). Hence, the German HAD version seems to be suitable for a psychological screening of cardiologic patients. In patients with suspected coronary heart disease it improves the non-invasive differentiation between organic and functional causes of chest pain.