Is depression a risk factor for mortality in chronic hemodialysis patients? Diefenthaeler EC, Wagner MB, Poli-de-Figueiredo CE, Zimmermann PR, Saitovitch D. (Rev Bras Psiquiatr. 2008 Jun;30(2):99-103.
This study was conducted to investigate the relationship between clinical symptoms of depression and mortality in chronic hemodialysis. 40 patients were monitored for 10.5 months.
Summary
The Beck Scale was used to find out if there were cases of depression (>14 points) or not (<14 points). Kaplan-Meier curves were used to compare mortality between groups. The potential influence of other factors was determined by the Cox proportional hazard model.
The Result
After 24 months of observation, the average survival time in depressed patients was 39%, and in non-depressed patients it was 95% (p=0.029). Other indicators, including age, other general diseases of the patient, and biochemical parameters, have little correlation with the mortality factor. Depressed patients received hemodialysis longer and underwent less kidney transplantation (50% vs. 9%).
The Result
The presence of depressive symptoms may be one of the main indicators of mortality risk factor in dialysis patients.
