Project 17

Screening for Anxiety and Depression among the End Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) Patient Population at Manchester Royal Infirmary

Depression is thought to affect from 20 to >30% of patients who suffer from End Stage Renal Disease (ESRD), but it is not commonly recognised or treated, and therefore there is a lack of information about how it should be treated in these patients. Recent research has highlighted the pressing need for large-scale trials to assess the effectiveness of both medication and psychosocial treatments for depression in ESRD patients. Depression is associated with poor health outcomes and reduced quality of life. Symptoms of depression such as fatigue, loss of energy, decreased appetite, and sleep disturbance are known to overlap symptoms associated with ESRD, but there are questionnaires available which provide a valid means of diagnosing depression in ESRD patients. At MRI we have large pre-dialysis (480 patients) and dialysis (595 patients) populations, consisting of patients on home haemodialysis (76 patients) and peritoneal dialysis (86 patients), as well as those who are on maintenance haemodialysis, either in the MRI unit (188 patients) or in satellite units (245 patients). We also have a group of ESRD patients managed (84 patients) without dialysis treatment. We are proposing screening our ESRD patients for anxiety and depression using a self–completed questionnaire. Our intention would be to include as many patients as possible to allow us to compare results from the different dialysis treatment groups. This will identify how many of our patients are anxious or depressed, and whether this is associated with particular types of treatment.