Depression is a fairly common finding among end-stage renal disease (ESRD) patients on hemodialysis and is an independent risk factor for morbidity and mortality. The psychiatric manifestations of the disease may affect their compliance to medications and alter sleep quality that is often overlooked by nephrologists. This translates into poor quality of life and poorer disease prognosis. Thus, Our study aims to assess the prevalence of depression and its association with compliance to medical therapy and sleep quality among ESRD patients on hemodialysis.

In this cross-sectional study, a total of 288 hemodialysis patients with a confirmed diagnosis of ESRD were evaluated for depression using Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) scale. Only the patients with moderate to severe depressive symptoms on PHQ-9 were further evaluated for sleep quality and compliance to medications using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) and Drug Attitude Inventory-10 (DAI-10) respectively. The characteristics of ESRD patients with depression were also assessed. Median PHQ-9, DAI-10, and PSQI scores were calculated and the correlation between study variables was assessed using spearman's correlation.

Of the 288 included participants, 188 (65.27%) had depression as evaluated via PHQ-9. Of these 188 patients, 114 were males while 74 were females. A total of 113 (60.01%) of the depressed patients had poor compliance with medication while 137 (72.87%) patients had poor sleep quality. Higher PHQ-9 scores were positively correlated with disease duration, dialysis years, and time between diagnosis and therapy (r = 0.41, 0.39, and 0.43 respectively) and negatively with marital and employment status (r = −0.32 and −0.49 respectively). Spearman's correlation matrix showed that PHQ-9 scores were negatively correlated with DAI-10 but positively correlated with PSQI scores.

The study indicates a high prevalence of depression among ESRD patients on hemodialysis. Poor sleep quality and non-adherence to medications are extremely common among ESRD patients with depression. These psychiatric components must be considered to optimize medical treatment and improve the quality of life in this subset of patients.

Depression remains an exceedingly ubiquitous entity that significantly depreciates the quality of life and disease prognosis among end-stage renal disease (ESRD) patients. Even though the deleterious effects of depression on ESRD patients are well-established in the literature, the predictive factors that predispose such patients to depression need to be explored. Our study thus aims to gauge these factors and create a predictive model for optimal psychiatric and medical management of such patients.

All ESRD patients with a disease duration of at least one year underwent a complete psychiatric evaluation based on DSM-V guidelines preceded by a cognitive evaluation by Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE). A total of 73 patients diagnosed with moderate to severe major depressive disorder were selected as cases. Patients suffering from recurrent psychotic episodes, having a past or family history of psychiatric illness, being already treated for depression, having any substance abuse (current or past), were excluded from the study. Following the similar guidelines, and exclusion criteria, 146 patients (two controls for each case) having no depression were selected as controls. The cases and controls were studied and matched for a myriad of sociodemographic factors. The various risk factors for depression were evaluated using univariate and multivariate binary logistics analysis.

The significant risk factors for depression among hemodialysis patients were age (OR = 1.79, CI = 0.47–3.81), comorbidities (OR = 2.13, CI = 0.51–3.96), duration of renal disease (OR = 2.54, CI 0.63–4.28), duration of hemodialysis (OR = 2.36, CI = 0.89–4.11), unemployment (OR = 2.33, CI = 0.79–3.88), and being unmarried (OR = 1.93, CI = 0.44–3.53). Prospect of survival, financial instability, social stigmatization, and effect of comorbidities on ESRD were major concerns for the cases that attributed to their depressive symptoms.

The factors that herald the onset of depression among hemodialysis patients include increasing age, presence of comorbidities, unemployment being unmarried, and increasing duration of hemodialysis. These factors will aid the clinicians to identify high-risk patients that require psychiatric consultation. We recommend prompt psychiatric intervention (pharmacologic or non-pharmacologic) and appropriate patient counseling so that the depressive symptoms can be alleviated and dismal disease prognosis can be prevented among such high-risk patients.