Depression, anxiety & stress among patients of end stage renal disease undergoing hemodialysis

Abstract

Objective: This study is projected to check the prevalence of depression, anxiety and stress in the patients of End Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) undergoing hemodialysis at centers in Hyderabad and investigate the reasons behind it. Methodology: This observational, multi-center study comprised of a sample of 100 patients of ESRD undergoing hemodialysis selected (via simple random sampling) from different hospitals of Hyderabad. The data was collected using interview based structured questionnaires, after taking informed consent, from 1st Dec 2014 to 10th Feb 2015. Levels of depression, anxiety and stress were gauged using the DAS scale approved by the Australian Center for Posttraumatic Mental Health. Results: According to the mean scores obtained, moderate levels of depression and stress while severe levels anxiety prevailed. 69% patients declared diet control rules as bothersome. Although, 50% of respondents were on dialysate for more than a year and 83% underwent dialysis twice per week yet the mean levels of serum albumin and urea were not within normal range. Conclusion: On the basis of this result we come to know that great numbers of patients of ESRD undergoing hemodialysis were suffering from anxiety depression and stress and uremia.

Keywords

• end stage renal disease
• hemodialysis
• psychological distress
• depression
• anxiety
• stress