Background
End-stage renal disease (ESRD) is a severe and debilitating disease. Insignificant data exist on depression, anxiety, quality of life (QoL), and life satisfaction in patients on hemodialysis (HD) in comparison with patients with renal transplantation (RT).
Aim
The aim of this study was to compare the presence and severity of depression and accompanying anxiety symptoms between HD patients and RT recipients and to correlate both depression and anxiety with the QoL and life satisfaction affection in both groups of patients.
Patients and methods
A comparative cross-sectional study was conducted on 64 patients with ESRD who were recruited consecutively from the nephrology outpatient clinic of Kasr Al Ainy, Cairo University Hospitals, over a period of 1 year. Patients were applied the Physical, Cognitive, Affective, Social, Economic and Ego Questionnaire to assess QoL, Beck Depression Inventory to assess depression, Middlesex Hospital Questionnaire to assess anxiety, and Life Satisfaction Scale for life satisfaction.
Results
The study results showed that depression, anxiety, and somatization in the HD group showed significant higher scores than the RT group. Patients on HD were significantly less satisfied with their life and showed lower scores on the physical domain, whereas patients with RT had significant lower scores on the economic domain of QoL. Life satisfaction and most domains of QoL were negatively correlated with depression, anxiety, and somatization in the HD group.
Conclusion
Depression accompanied with a variety of anxiety symptoms constituted determinants of poor QoL in the setting of ESRD and consequently, less life satisfaction. HD patients showed higher levels of depression, anxiety, and somatization along with poorer QoL and less life satisfaction than patients with RT.