The identification and management of depression in UK Kidney Care: Results from the Mood Maps Study

Depression is common in people with chronic kidney disease, yet little is known about how depression is identified and managed as part of routine kidney care.

The primary objective was to survey all UK adult kidney centres to understand how depression is identified and managed. A secondary objective was to broadly describe the variability in psychosocial care.

Online survey.

The survey comprised of three sections: (1) general kidney care, (2) psychological provision and (3) social work provision.

48/68 (71%) of centres responded to the general survey with 20 and 13 responses from psychological and social work module respectively. Only 31.4% reported having both in centre psychological and social work practitioners. Three centres reported no access to psychosocial provision. Of the 25 centres who reported on pathways, 36.0% reported having internal pathways for the identification and management of depression. Within services with psychological provision, screening for depression varied across modality/group (e.g., 7.1% in mild/moderate chronic kidney disease vs. 62.5% in kidney donors). Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy were the most common interventions offered. Most psychosocial services were aware of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidelines for managing depression in long-term conditions (n = 18, 94.7%) yet few fully utilised (n = 6, 33.3%). Limited workforce capacity was evident.

There is considerable variability in approaches taken to identify and treat depression across UK kidney services, with few services having specific pathways designed to detect and manage depression. Workforce capacity remains a significant issue.