Prevalence of symptoms of depression among patients with chronic kidney disease

Objective: Depression is the most common psychiatric illness in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD). Depression has been shown to affect mortality in end-stage renal disease patients. The objective of this study was to determine prevalence of depressive symptoms among CKD patients. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study of patients with CKD (Stages 3-5) attending the renal clinic of a tertiary hospital was conducted. Demographic and clinical data were documented. A self-administered Zung depression questionnaire was administered. The Zung depression questionnaire has 20 weighted questions. Individuals with a total score of 50 are considered to be depressed, while a score of 70 and above is indicative of severe depression. Results: One hundred and eighteen patients and fifty controls were interviewed. There were 73 (61.9%) males and 45 (38.1%) female patients. The mean age did not differ: males 43.8 +/- 15.4 years, females 43.2 +/- 14.7 yrs, P = 0.83. The prevalence of depression among the CKD patients was 23.7%, while for the control group was 2%; chi(2) = 10.14, P < 0.001. Further analysis showed that CKD patients on dialysis were more likely to be depressed than the pre-dialysis patients with frequency of depressive symptoms of 34.5% for dialysis patients versus 13.3% in pre-dialysis patients; chi(2) = 6.17, P = 0.01. No difference was observed in the mean Zung score among males, and female patients mean Zung score was 40.1 in females and 40.7 in male patients; P > 0.05. Conclusion: Depression is highly prevalent among our patients with CKD and treatment modality was the major predictor of depression among our patients.