The relationship of depression to survival in chronic renal failure

The authors examine the relationship between psychosocial factors and factors and survival of patients with chronic renal failure, while considering simultaneously the influence of parameters of physiologic functioning. Psychosocial and physiologic variables selected for discriminant analysis were extracted from data on 285 home-dialysis patients in Ontario, Canada. This analytical procedure defined which variables best discriminated between the survivor and nonsurvivor groups. The findings suggest that demographic and psychosocial factors may be more important than physiologic variables in determination of survival on home dialysis. The severity and type of depression is of particular importance to outcome.