ABSTRACT

The main objectives of this study were the prevalence of depression and cognitive function impairments in patients undergoing haemodialysis. An observational study performed on 60 patients with CKD stage IV and V undergoing haemodialysis. Depressive symptomatology, defined by a Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) and cognitive function measured by Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE) questionnaire. We found that there is a high prevalence of depression in End Stage Renal Diseases (ESRD) patients receiving hemodialysis, particularly those taking it for a longer duration. The prevalence of depression was higher in the 50–60 age group and was found to be positively correlated with age in general. From our study, it was found that more depressive symptoms were found in patients with lower education as compared to patients with graduation or above. The positive correlation between duration of dialysis both depression and cognitive function.

Key words: Depression, Cognitive function, Haemodialysis, ESRD, CKD.