Abstract
Background: Anxiety and depression are frequently found in hemodialysis (HD) patients, they remain understudied and often untreated that increase the suffering of such patients.
Methods: We studied the prevalence, demograhic, clinical and laboratory predictors of anxiety and depression among 524 HD patients in Sharkia governorate using the Hospital Anxiety and Depression scale (HADS) questionnaire.
Results: 51% and 33.7% of patients had borderline and abnormal anxiety scales repectively while, 52.3% and 31.9% had borderline abnormal depression scales respectively. 34.2% and 48.6% of patients with borderline and abnormal anxiety scales has hypertension respectively while, 24.1% and 21.5% of patients with borderline and abnormal anxiety scales has diabetes mellitus (DM) respectively. Married patients represented 81.9% and 82.5% of patients with borderline and abnormal anxiety scales respectively. Anxiety has a negative correlation with HD duration and a positive correlation with ALP level while, depression has a positive correlation and both Alkaline phosphatase (ALP) and C-reative protein (CRP) levels. CRP presented more in patients with borderline and abnormal depression scales (25.9% and 19.9% respectively).
Conclusion: Anxiety and depression are common in Egyptian HD patients. Anxiety has a negative correlation with HD duration and a positive correlation with ALP. Depression is common in patients with DM and hypertension. It has a positive correlation with ALP and CRP levels,also married patients and those with high CRP levels are more prone to have depression.
Keywords: Anxiety, depression, end-stage renal disease, hemodialysis
Corresponding author: Mohamed Fouad; Zagazig University; Dr.M.Fouad@hotmail.com