Assessment of depression among patients undergoing haemodialysis: a cross-sectional study

Abstract

Background: Depression is the most important neuropsychiatric complication in chronic kidney disease because it reduces quality of life and increases mortality. The beginning of dialysis treatment causes subtle changes in the life of CKD patients, mainly in the physical and social spheres. It affects the self-care of these patients which lead to poor adherence to dialysis. Hence, the present study was conducted to screen for depression.Methods: This was an observational study among 100 patients undergoing haemodialysis at HIMS, HASSAN. After taking informed consent, subjects were requested to complete Beck, depression Inventory, a 21-question multiple-choice self-report inventory for measuring the severity of depression. Descriptive statistics was applied to infer the findings.Results: The study population showed depression of mild (31%), borderline (10%), moderate (17%), severe (7%) and extreme (3%) grade and the remaining subjects did not show depressive symptoms (32%).Conclusions: Majority of patients undergoing hemodialysis were depressed. Major risk factors for depression were marital status of the patients, low literacy rate, gender and those started on dialysis recently.