A cross-sectional study on assessing depression among hemodialysis patients

Depression is the most common disorder of psychiatric illness experienced by hemodialysis patients. Failure to measure depression may diminish their well-being. The main objective of this study is to assess depression in hemodialysis patients. The primary goal is to find out the prevalence of depression among chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients. The secondary goal is to find the association between age, sex, and the severity of depression among patients with CKD. This cross-sectional study was performed at the Nephrology Department of King Fahad Hospital, Tabuk, from December 2021 to April 2022. Depression was assessed using a validated Arabic version of the Zung Self-Rating Depression Scale, which is a self-administered questionnaire to assess depression. The mean age of subjects was 42.13 years (standard deviation = 15.65), most of them were in the age group of 18-29 and 40-49 years (n = 59, 24.58%), and the majority were male (n = 128, 53.33%). The depression prevalence among hemodialysis patients was 74.58%. Majority of the patients were with mild depression (n = 175, 72.92%). No significant difference was found for depression among different age groups or genders with ongoing hemodialysis, in our study. Even though the prevalence of depression was high, mostly they were in the mild category. Depression should be assessed frequently, and psychological counseling should be given to improve the well-being of patients.