Children of home dialysis patients

Fifteen children of six families in which one parent was undergoing home dialysis were examined by the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory, human figure drawings, and family interviews. All the children were found to be clinically depressed, and two thirds had a history of being referred by teachers to school counselors and psychiatrists for behavioral problems in school. Of these referred children, all showed disorders of psychomotor activity and reduced academic achievement. There was no clear-cut evidence that these children were depressed because of exposure to home dialysis per se. The most disturbed children seemed to be responding to depressed parents or to partial object loss. A controlled, prospective study is planned to clarify this question.