Screening for abdominal aortic aneurysms does not increase psychological morbidity.

Screening can lead to harmful psychological effects in the screened population--an argument used against abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) screening. However, there is no evidence for this in AAA screening. We applied the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) to a group of men undergoing screening for AAA. The HADS questionnaire was completed by subjects found not to have AAA, subjects with known small aneurysms attending for follow-up scans, subjects with known AAA on waiting lists for surgery, and controls not involved in the screening programme. The groups were well matched for age and the number of additional diseases. There was no significant difference in the distribution of patients for anxiety and depression according to the HADS questionnaire (chi 2 test, P > 0.1). The results from this study suggest that AAA screening does not increase anxiety or depression in the screened subjects--contrary to the argument put forward against screening for this condition.