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Objective: Mental health may affect the quality of life (QoL) in patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH). However, mental disorders have not been systematically assessed in these patients. We examined the prevalence of mental disorders using structured interviews and determined their impact on QoL in patients with PAH. Methods: This study included 217 patients with PAH from two German referral centers. Psychiatric disorders were assessed using the structured clinical interview for DSM-V. QoL was assessed using the WHO Quality of Life questionnaire (short form). The diagnostic value of the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale was evaluated by receiver operating characteristic curve analysis. Results: 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. The Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale ruled out panic disorder and depression disorder with negative predictive values of almost 90%. Conclusion: Mental disorders, in particular adjustment disorder, major depression, and panic disorder, are common in patients with PAH and contribute to impaired QoL in these patients. The Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale may be used as a screening tool for the most common mental health disorders. Future studies need to address interventional strategies targeting mental disorders in patients with PAH., Competing Interests: KMO has received fees for lectures and/or consultations from Actelion, Janssen, MSD, Bayer, United Therapeutics, GSK, Janssen, Pfizer, and Acceleron, all outside the present study. HAG has received personal fees from Actelion, personal fees from AstraZeneca, personal fees from Bayer, personal fees from BMS, personal fees from GSK, personal fees from Janssen-Cilag, personal fees from Lilly, personal fees from MSD, personal fees from Novartis, personal fees from OMT, personal fees from Pfizer, and personal fees from United Therapeutics, outside the submitted work. HAG has received fees from Actelion, Bayer, Gilead, GSK, MSD, Pfizer, and United Therapeutics, outside the present work. MMH has received honoraria for lectures and/or consultations from Acceleron, Actelion, Bayer, GSK, Janssen, MSD, and Pfizer, all outside the present study. KGK has received honoraria for consultations and/or lectures from Eli Lilly, Janssen, Lundbeck, Neuraxpharm, Otsuka, Pfizer, Servier, Schwabe, Takeda, and Trommsdorff/Ferrer. The remaining authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2021 Olsson, Meltendorf, Fuge, Kamp, Park, Richter, Gall, Ghofrani, Ferrari, Schmiedel, Kulla, Heitland, Lepsy, Dering, Hoeper and Kahl.)