Symptoms and their correlates in chronic kidney disease

While there is a significant body of literature documenting the impairments in health-related quality of life (HRQOL) experienced by patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD), recent work has helped to elucidate the mediators of impaired well-being in this patient group. Physical and emotional symptoms have been shown to be common, frequently severe, and directly linked with impaired HRQOL. The following review explores the process of symptom assessment in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD), presents an overview of the composite burden and importance of symptoms in patients with ESRD, highlights particularly common and distressing symptoms for which existing treatment strategies may be applicable, and discusses future directions for efforts to address and alleviate symptoms in the growing population of patients who suffer from CKD.