Association of psychiatric symptoms and quality of life in end-stage renal disease patients

Objective: To investigate the association of psychiatric symptoms(anxiety and depression) and quality of life in end-stage renal disease(ESRD) patients.Methods: Quality of life was evaluated in a sample of 57 ESRD patients by SF-36 questionnaire included eight scales,which were tested for a physical component summary(PCS) and a mental component summary(MCS) score for each patient.Depression and anxiety were estimated by Hamilton Depression Rating Scale(HAMD) and Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale(HAMA) respectively.Results: Despite 38.6% patients with depression and 54.4% with anxiety,depression and anxiety scores were negatively correlated with 7 out of 8 scales of SF-36 questionnaire,with PCS and MCS scores,whereas.Quality of life scores in the depression group,the anxiety group and the anxiety and depression co-morbid group were lower than those without corresponding psychiatric symptoms(P0.05)? Conclusion: This study has demonstrated that depression and anxiety are commonly encountered in ESRD patients,which may be risk factors of quality of life,suggesting that reducing psychiatric symptoms effectively may be a path way to improve quality of life in ESRD patients.