Depression doesn't delay test follow-up

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BOSTON, Nov. 22 (UPI) -- Pre-existing depression and anxiety in women does not delay follow-up to abnormal mammograms and Pap tests, U.S. researchers say.

Lead author Dr. Andrea Kronman, assistant professor of medicine at Boston University School of Medicine, and colleagues conducted a retrospective review of electronic medical records to identify women who had a diagnosis of depression or anxiety in the year prior to the abnormal mammogram or Pap test.

Of the women with abnormal mammogram 19 percent had depression and of the women with an abnormal Pap tests 16 percent had depression.

The median time to resolution was 27 days for women with abnormal mammograms and 85 days for women with abnormal Pap tests, Kronman said.

The study, published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine, found there was no difference in time to diagnostic resolution between depressed and not-depressed women for those with abnormal mammograms or Pap tests.