Depressed dialysis patients more likely to be hospitalized or die, researcher findsSeptember 15, 2008Dialysis patients diagnosed with depression are nearly twice as likely to be hospitalized or die within a year than those who are not depressed, a UT Southwestern Medical Center researcher has found. In the study, available online and in the Sept. 15 issue of Kidney International, researchers monitored 98 dialysis patients for up to 14 months. More than a quarter of dialysis patients received a psychiatric diagnosis of some form of depression based on a Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders 4th edition (DSM IV). This is the first reported link between adverse clinical outcomes in dialysis patients and depression made through a formal psychiatric interview based on the DSM-IV standards. More than 80 percent of the depressed patients died or were hospitalized, compared with 43 percent of non-depressed patients. Cardiovascular events, which previously have been linked to depression, led to 20 percent of the hospitalizations. "Twenty percent of patients who start dialysis will die by the end of the first year," said Dr. Susan Hedayati, assistant professor of internal medicine and the study's lead author. "What we don't know yet is, if their depression is treated, could it extend dialysis patients' survival and improve their quality of life." Dr. Hedayati, a staff nephrologist at the Dallas Veterans Affairs Medical Center, said depression-like symptoms - such as loss of energy, poor appetite and sleep disturbances - are often observed in patients with chronic disease, so it is important to get a scientifically valid diagnosis for clinical depression. Twenty-six million people in America have chronic kidney disease and more than 20 million are at increased risk, according to the National Kidney Foundation. End-stage renal disease occurs when the patients' kidneys have failed to the point where dialysis or a kidney transplant is needed. Dialysis filters toxic chemicals in the blood and helps control blood pressure. With hemodialysis, the kind investigated in this latest study, a filter functions as an artificial kidney to remove waste, extra chemicals and fluid from the body. Coronary artery disease, congestive heart failure and diabetes are known co-morbidities for patients with end-stage renal disease. In this paper, with the addition of each co-morbidity, a dialysis patient was about 30 percent more likely to be hospitalized or die. If the patient had depression, however, the relationship was even stronger, with about a 100 percent increase in these dire outcomes, Dr. Hedayati said. "Nephrologists don't have as much data showing that treating anemia or increasing the dose of dialysis will improve survival, and yet during our routine rounds with dialysis patients we intervene on those issues," Dr. Hedayati said. "Nephrologists don't usually ask patients about depression. Since depression is so prevalent and can negatively affect dialysis patients, we need to ask about it." Depression is a treatable disease, so Dr. Hedayati hopes hospitalizations and deaths can be reduced with further research. Other large trials involving dialysis patients, including some that evaluated treatment of high cholesterol, using ACE-inhibitors or increasing the dose of dialysis, haven't been shown to make a significant difference in life expectancy or hospitalization, Dr. Hedayati said. "Now that we know depression in dialysis patients is associated with adverse outcomes such as death and hospitalization, we need to take another step forward and figure out if treating it will make a difference in patient outcomes," Dr. Hedayati said. Researchers from Duke University Medical Center, Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Durham, N.C., and George Washington University also participated in the study. The study was supported by the Agency for Health Care, Research and Quality; the John A. Hartford Foundation; the Claude D. Pepper Older Americans Independence Center; and the VA. Visit http://www.utsouthwestern.org/kidneys to learn more about clinical services in nephrology at UT Southwestern. The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas |
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| Related Dialysis Current Events and Dialysis News Articles Brain injured athletes may benefit from hypothermia research NFL players and other athletes who suffer serious or multiple concussions may benefit from ground-breaking research being conducted by scientists at Barrow Neurological Institute at St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center. The scientists are developing a surgical technique that involves hypothermia in specific regions of the brain. The cost of improving dialysis care Improving survival among dialysis patients may increase treatment costs significantly, according to a paper being presented at the American Society of Nephrology's 42nd Annual Meeting and Scientific Exposition in San Diego, CA. Women with chronic kidney disease more likely than men to go undiagnosed Woman are at particular risk of their primary care physicians delaying diagnosis of chronic kidney disease (CKD), according to a paper being presented at the American Society of Nephrology's 42nd Annual Meeting and Scientific Exposition in San Diego, California. For dialysis patients, skinny is dangerous Dialysis patients with low body fat are at increased risk of death-even compared to patients at the highest level of body fat percentage, according to research being presented at the American Society of Nephrology's 42nd Annual Meeting and Scientific Exposition in San Diego. Kidney transplants generally safe for lupus patients Individuals with a history of lupus who receive a kidney transplant rarely develop the serious inflammatory condition lupus nephritis in their new organ, according to a paper being presented at the American Society of Nephrology's 42nd Annual Meeting and Scientific Exposition in San Diego, CA. Muscle weakness a common side effect of long stays in intensive care units After decades of focusing on the management of respiratory failure, circulatory shock and severe infections that lead to extended stays in hospital intensive care units, critical care researchers are increasingly turning attention to what they believe is a treatable complication developed by many who spend days or weeks confined to an ICU bed: debilitating muscle weakness that can linger long after hospital discharge. Calculate benefit before dialysis for frail elders Kidney specialists should weigh the potential quality of life for frail elders with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) in opting for dialysis over more conservative therapies, a nephrologist and a palliative care specialist suggest in an editorial in the New England Journal of Medicine. Kidneys from deceased donors with acute renal failure expand donor pool Kidneys recovered from deceased donors with acute renal failure (ARF) - once deemed unusable for transplant - appear to work just as well as kidneys transplanted from deceased donors who do not develop kidney problems prior to organ donation. Few complications 1 year after aortic valve implantation Research presented at the 21st annual Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics (TCT) scientific symposium, sponsored by the Cardiovascular Research Foundation (CRF), demonstrated an "exceptionally low" rate of complications one year after implantation of transcatheter aortic valve prostheses. Link between depression, early stages of chronic kidney disease found by researchers One in five patients with chronic kidney disease is depressed, even before beginning long-term dialysis therapy or developing end-stage renal disease, UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers have found. More Dialysis Current Events and Dialysis News Articles |
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